Imagine you are a community health nurse or midwife working to support Western Australians with the focus on one of the population groups listed below

Assignment Task

Assessment Task Instructions

Imagine you are a community health nurse or midwife working to support Western Australians with the focus on one of the population groups listed below:

• Children (12 years and under) and young people (aged 13-17 years)
•  Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people
• People from culturally and linguistically diverse communities
• People living in rural and remote communities
• People living with disability
• People of diverse sex, gender, and sexual orientation e.g., LGBTIQA+ community
• People experiencing disadvantage, e.g., unemployment, homelessness, criminality
• People from an occupational group, e.g., mining workers, farmers

Consider your role- e.g., Child and Youth Health Nurse, School Health Nurse, Community Mental Health Nurse, Community Midwife, Occupational Health Nurse, Community Aged Care Nurse, Rehabilitation/ Disability Support Nurse, Correctional Facility Nurse.

You have been tasked to conduct a health needs assessment, which provides information about the determinants of health impacting this group and analyses the health issues/ outcomes faced by this population group.

This is to determine priorities in the planning of evidence-based activities for action and aligns with the purpose of improving the wellbeing and reducing inequalities of Western Australians.

The term ‘health issues/ outcomes’, can include health-related topics such as the increased prevalence of poor mental health in a population or high smoking rates, or issues such as low levels of literacy or child development. In this context, it is something that can be addressed by community health service provider (or a community nurse/ midwife) to inform service provision, health promotion, community, and/ or policy development.

Introduction

An introduction to your topic in providing an overview of the community nurse/ midwives context and the target population in which they serve (including age range if applicable) Include a statement that outlines the structure and purpose of the paper

• Highlights the main issues that the essay will address
• Explain key terms e.g., the term Aboriginal is used as inclusive of Torres Strait Islander peoples as per SNM guidelines.

Health Assessment in Community Nursing and Midwifery:

• Provide a statement on the context of the nurse/ midwife’s role- e.g., community mental health, occupational health nurse etc and outline the importance of conducting a health needs assessment in community nursing and midwifery.
• Describe the characteristics of the chosen target population (population size, age distribution, gender, ethnicity, culture, languages, income, employment, education level etc)

Determinants of health:

• Outline what factors are affecting the health of the community by discuss two determinants of health that relate to the chosen target population,
• This will demonstrate ‘why’ your population is at risk of experiencing the health issues that it does from a socio-ecological/ environmental health perspective

Health issues

• Outline and discuss two health issues that are common to your chosen target population. i.e., high prevalence of chronic disease, increased rates of infectious diseases or neurological childhood conditions. It is not necessary to discuss the pathology or signs and symptoms of the illness/ disease.
• Use epidemiological data to describe the significance of the health issues. If possible, also include comparative data to provide context and meaning. E.g., young children have a high incidence of communicable disease when compared to the adult population.
•  If no published data is available for your unique target population in the community, you are welcome to use published wider population data (generalised mainstream data) and apply to your context.