Assessment 3 instructions: evidence-based population health

Write a 4-5 page population health improvement plan, based on your evaluation of the best available evidence from a minimum of 3-5 current scholarly or professional sources of demographic, environmental, and epidemiological data that focuses on your diagnosis of a widespread population health issue.

Part of effectively engaging in evidence-based practice is the ability to synthesize raw health data with research studies and other relevant information in the literature. This will enable you to develop sound interventions, initiatives, and outcomes to address health concerns that you find in data during the course of your practice.

In this assessment, you have an opportunity to evaluate community demographic, environmental, and epidemiological data to diagnose a widespread population health issue, which will be the focus of a health improvement plan that you develop.

Scenario

Your organization is undertaking a population health improvement initiative focused on one of the pervasive and chronic health concerns in the local community. Examples of health improvement initiatives include nationwide concerns, such as type 2 diabetes, HIV, obesity, insect bites, and Zika. However, your organization has asked you to determine which widespread health concern should be addressed in a population health improvement plan for your community and has entrusted you with gathering and evaluating the relevant data.

Your Role

You are a nurse in a community clinic or hospital and you have a good idea about the most common chronic health issues among its patients. You have been asked to prepare a presentation for the next staff meeting about the issue and the plan that you are proposing to help improve the community’s health.

Instructions

The requirements outlined below correspond to the grading criteria in the scoring guide, so be sure to address each point. In addition, you may want to review the performance-level descriptions for each criterion to see how your work will be assessed.

Part 1: Data Evaluation

Evaluate the outcomes of a population health improvement initiative from community demographic, epidemiological, and environmental data.

• Identify the relevant data.
• Identify the level of evidence, validity, and reliability for each source.
• Describe the major community health concerns suggested by the data.
• Explain how environmental factors affect the health of community residents.

Part 2: Health Improvement Plan

Develop a health improvement plan that ethically and effectively addresses the population health concern that you identified in your evaluation of the relevant data.

• Base your plan on the best available evidence from a minimum of 3-5 current scholarly or professional sources.
  • Apply correct APA formatting to all in-text citations and references.
  • Attach a reference list to your plan.
• Ensure that your plan meets the cultural and environmental needs of your community and will likely lead to some improvement in the community’s health related to this concern.
  • Consider the environmental realities and challenges existing in the community.
  • Address potential barriers or misunderstandings related to the various cultures prevalent in the community.
• Justify the value and relevance of the evidence you used as the basis of your plan.
  • Explain why the evidence is valuable and relevant to the community health concern you are addressing.
  • Explain why each piece of evidence is appropriate and informs the goal of improving the health of the community.
• Propose relevant and measurable criteria for evaluating the outcomes of your plan.
  • Explain why your proposed criteria are appropriate and useful measures of success.
• Explain how you will communicate with colleagues and members of the community, in an ethical, culturally sensitive, and inclusive way, with regard to the development and implementation of your plan.
  • Develop a clear communications strategy mindful of the cultural and ethical expectations of colleagues and community members regarding data privacy.
  • Ensure that your strategy enables you to make complex medical terms and concepts understandable to members of the community, regardless of language, disabilities, or level of education.
• The headings for your Evidence-Based Population Health Improvement Plan should be the following:
  • Data Evaluation.
  • Meeting Community Needs.
  • Evidence.
  • Measuring Outcomes.
  • Communication Plan.