Serving vulnerable populations

In this assessment, you will explore your community’s resources for people who live in a food desert, develop a meal plan that fits the medical conditions, consider the culture of the community members, and explore how to help community members maintain health. 

Part 1: Serving Vulnerable Populations

Imagine you are a community health nurse assigned to care for a family with a newly diagnosed type-2 diabetic member. The diabetic family member, JK, is a 66-year-old Black woman with hypertension and asthma. JK lives in a food desert and does not drive. JK’s family visits her weekly, but they have complicated lives and are unable to provide daily care for her. 

Evaluate the following community health resources and summarize them in a table: 

United States Department of Agriculture 

• Food Access Research Atlas 
• Food Access Research Atlas Map 
• Characteristics and Influential Factors of Food Deserts 

 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 

• A Systematic Review of Food Deserts, 1966-2007 
• Small Food Stores and Availability of Nutritious Foods 
• Data & Statistics 

Create a plan detailing opportunities for JK to gain adequate access to appropriate foods for one week. 

Your plan must address: 

• Appropriate and realistic estimated budget 
• Shopping locations 
• Transportation means, routes, and timing 
• Support services 

Compare JK’s community to your county census data. “The county census data is COOK COUNTY ” of Illinois.

Format your assignment as a 10- to 15-slide Microsoft PowerPoint presentation with speaker notes. 

Part 2: Disease Prevention Teaching Project

Step 1: Choose a community health agency (day care, church, school, clinic, homeless shelter). 

Step 2: Review Table 1-1 (p. 49) of Community/Public Health Nursing and the results of your windshield survey completed in Week 2.

“Please refer to uploaded files”

From the results of your windshield survey, you will identify a health issue facing the community. You will prepare an outline for a teaching project surrounding the issue, which you would present to your selected agency about this issue. 

Assess the community for: “The community is Skokie, IL.

• Healthy food option 
• Boundaries 
• Housing and zoning 
• Open space 
• Commons 
• Transportation 
• Social service centers 
• Stores, businesses, and industries 
• Street people and animals 
• Condition of the area 
• Race, culture, and ethnicity 
• Religion 
• Health indicators and morbidity 
• Politics 
• Media 
• Signs of decay 
• Crime rate 
• Employment rate 
• Schools 
• Environmental factors 
• Public services (fire, police) 

Step 3: Recommend an appropriate disease prevention teaching project that could be offered by your chosen agency for the local community. 

Prepare a 750-word summary of the teaching project. Include the following: 

• Summarize the public health issues facing the selected community. 
• Select 1 issue and prepare an outline of the problem or issue faced. 
• Explain how your selected agency could address the issue. 
• Prepare an outline of a disease prevention teaching project that could be offered by your agency.