NR 443 Milestone 2: Vulnerable Population Assessment

Assignment Overview and Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to identify and assess an aggregate or vulnerable population in your community. You will also describe one community health problem that impacts this group. This problem must be one that a community health nurse could positively impact.

Based on your community assessment, including your windshield survey and the assessment information from your discussions, identify one aggregate or vulnerable population in your community that faces a community health problem. See units five and six in Nies and McEwen for examples of vulnerable populations and aggregates. Your community must be the area where you live or work.

Paper Requirements

This APA paper is expected to be no more than four pages in length (not including the title page and reference list). Use the categories described below as the first-level headings on your paper. The title of the paper repeats and centers at the top of the second page in plain text instead of an “Introduction” heading.

• Introduction (one paragraph): Provide a brief description of your community including the city name and state and key features. Briefly introduce one aggregate or vulnerable population that you identified in your assessment. Discuss the purpose of your paper, which relates to assessing this vulnerable population in your community.
• Vulnerable Population Overview (one to two paragraphs): Describe one aggregate or vulnerable group in your community in greater detail. Include your observations about this group from the windshield survey. Discuss events or trends that have affected this vulnerable group such as economic conditions, trends in health-related behaviors or disease rates, and so on.
• Strengths, Risk Factors, and/or Barriers (two to three paragraphs): Discuss the strengths, risk factors, and/or barriers that impact this vulnerable population’s health. Include support from at least one scholarly peer-reviewed journal article in this discussion. Summarize what you learned from this article and cite the source in the text and on the reference page. The article must be less than 10 years old. You may include and cite your textbook or other scholarly sources as well, but they do not count as the required scholarly journal article.
• Community Resources (one to two paragraphs): Search your local public health department website, the internet, the local newspaper, and/or telephone book for health resources available in your community for this vulnerable group. Briefly describe the resources in your community that are available for this group. Are these resources adequate? If so, why? If not, discuss gaps in services that you identified.
• Community Health Problem Diagnosis (one to two paragraphs): Based on your assessment and the Healthy People 2020 objectives, identify and discuss one priority community health problem that a community health nurse could positively impact. The problem must relate to the aggregate or vulnerable population you identified. State the Healthy People 2020 specific numbered objective that describes your problem.
• Summary (one paragraph): Summarize important points from the body of your paper including the aggregate or vulnerable group you identified and key factors that affect the health of this group. Include a statement about the priority problem you identified. End with a concluding statement.

Length: This paper is expected to be no more than four pages in length (not including the title page and reference list). Quotations should be minimal—please paraphrase your sources. A maximum of two short quotations should be used for this paper. Submit your paper by 11:59 p.m. MT Sunday of Week 4. Save your paper with your last name in the document title (for example, Smith Vulnerable Population Assessment).

Sample Student Response

In the south side neighborhood of Chicago where I live, I identified low-income Hispanic families as a vulnerable aggregate facing multiple health challenges. My windshield survey showed crowded apartment buildings with limited green space and several fast-food outlets but few grocery stores offering fresh produce. Recent economic shifts have increased unemployment in the area, leading to higher rates of food insecurity and delayed medical care. Churches and local clinics provide some support groups, yet transportation remains a major barrier for many families with young children. One key issue is the rising incidence of childhood obesity linked to these conditions. According to the Healthy People 2020 social determinants of health objectives, economic stability directly influences access to nutritious food and preventive services for such groups. A community health nurse could partner with existing clinics to address this gap through targeted education programs.

Follow-Up Insight on Application

Building directly on the example of low-income Hispanic families in Chicago, a 2019 study by Andermann in the Canadian Medical Association Journal outlines a practical framework that clinical nurses can adapt for addressing social determinants during routine visits, such as screening for housing instability alongside routine pediatric checks. This approach aligns well with the windshield survey observations and shows how individual-level interventions scale up to community impact without requiring large funding upfront. Real-world data from similar urban settings indicate that early screening reduces emergency department visits by up to 15 percent within the first year.

Students often assume vulnerability stems only from income level, yet research consistently demonstrates that intersecting factors like language barriers and cultural mistrust of healthcare systems play equally significant roles; comparing this to rural communities where geographic isolation replaces urban density highlights why tailored resource mapping, rather than a one-size-fits-all program, yields better outcomes according to CDC community health improvement guidelines from 2022. In practice, nurses who combine local data with these broader insights tend to secure stronger stakeholder buy-in when proposing interventions to local health departments.

Recommended References

Andermann, A. (2018). Taking action on the social determinants of health in clinical practice: A framework for health professionals. Canadian Medical Association Journal, 190(26), E801–E806. https://doi.org/10.1503/cmaj.170827

Marmot, M. (2020). Health equity in England: The Marmot review 10 years on. BMJ, 368, m693. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.m693

Nies, M. A., & McEwen, M. (2021). Community/public health nursing: Promoting the health of populations (8th ed.). Elsevier.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2022). Social determinants of health. https://www.cdc.gov/socialdeterminants/index.htm

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (2020). Healthy People 2030: Social determinants of health. https://health.gov/healthypeople/priority-areas/social-determinants-health

Write a 3–4 page APA paper that identifies one vulnerable population in your community and links it to a specific Healthy People 2020 objective for NR 443 Milestone 2 at Chamberlain University.

Submit a 4-page assessment of an aggregate or vulnerable group using windshield survey data, scholarly support, and local resources for the NR 443 community health nursing course.

Identify a vulnerable population, analyze its health risks, and propose a nurse-led solution in this NR 443 Milestone 2 paper.

Week 8 Discussion: Future Directions

NR 443 – Community Health Nursing Discussions – Week 8 discussion. Future Directions. Reflect on what you have learned in this course. What future concerns are likely to impact public health? How do you see global health concerns impacting your community? How can you apply what you have learned in this course to your current practice? Your initial post should be 300–400 words and include at least one scholarly reference. Respond to at least two peers by Sunday. Submit by 11:59 p.m. MT Sunday of Week