Local Geographical Distribution of Health-Related Factors

Population health, in its broadest sense, is defined as an integrated approach by which interdisciplinary collaboration between various groups in a community—such as businesses, academia, healthcare providers, philanthropic organizations, local governments, and civil and religious organizations—work together to achieve the common goal of improving overall human health within a defined geographical area (CDC, 2017). 

When examining population health dynamics, it is important to recognize that important research areas include not only aggregated medical diagnoses but also the hazards in the living and working environments, socioeconomic statuses, ethnic backgrounds, educational levels, and health coverage-related aspects of a given population. In particular, underserved populations play an important role in the development of strategies, interventions, and policy for the delivery of improved population health. Improving population health focuses not only on bringing awareness to significant health issues and contributing factors within a given area but also on identifying the resources necessary to influence and deliver positive changes.

For nurses and other members of the healthcare community, population health is just as much a professional responsibility as is the care of a single individual in an acute care setting. It is important for members of the healthcare community to cultivate an awareness of and sense of involvement in population health initiatives. In these initiatives, a nurse’s knowledge—including informatics competencies, clinical practice experience, and leadership skills—can be applied to positively affect health outcomes. It is equally important for nurses to first analyze and understand the geographical area an initiative focuses on. This helps identify modifiable and nonmodifiable health risk factors within a community, which serves as the foundation for setting priorities. This first step is vital in generating the information necessary for the engagement and action of local stakeholders. 

In this task, you will gather data about the local geographical distribution of health-related factors, study the significance of the data, and present the data in a manner illustrating the state of the selected county’s population health. You will explore the community’s health profile and trends as well as factors influencing the county’s current health status. The information you submit will consist of graphics such as maps, trending graphs, comparative charts, and statistical lists. You will summarize key findings and highlight at least one health factor or condition requiring focused attention.

REQUIREMENTS

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Your submission must be your original work. No more than a combined total of 30% of the submission and no more than a 10% match to any one individual source can be directly quoted or closely paraphrased from sources, even if cited correctly. The originality report that is provided when you submit your task can be used as a guide.

You must use the rubric to direct the creation of your submission because it provides detailed criteria that will be used to evaluate your work. Each requirement below may be evaluated by more than one rubric aspect. The rubric aspect titles may contain hyperlinks to relevant portions of the course.

You will perform the following actions by completing the “Population Health Data Brief Template” attachment:

A.  Complete the “Sociodemographic Profile” section in the “Population Health Data Brief Template” attachment by doing the following:

Note:  If information is not available for any subsection, please provide an explanation.

1.  Complete the “Key Findings” subsection, including a screenshot of the county you are investigating.

2.  Complete the “Introductory Paragraph” subsection (suggested length of 1–2 paragraphs), identifying the source of the data and a summary of findings from the table in part A3.

3.  Complete the 20 population characteristics in the “Sociodemographic Profile Table” subsection for the selected county and the United States.

B.  Complete the “County Health Trends & Rankings” section in the “Population Health Data Brief Template” attachment by doing the following:

1.  Complete the “Introductory Paragraph” subsection (suggested length of 1–2 paragraphs), including why the data for the health trends in part B2 were collected and identifying the source of the data and the methods used to gather the data.

2.  Complete the “Discussion of Health Trends” subsection, including a discussion of the use of trend graphs for the seven major health trends selected in part B3.

3.  Complete the “Health Trends (Visual Graphs)” subsection, including one trend graph for each of the selected health trends.

Note:  Caption each visual graph in APA format.

4.  Complete the “Health Trends Discussion” subsection (suggested length of 1–2 paragraphs), including how each of the trend graphs tell a story about the health of the county and how the health aspect is improving, worsening, or remaining stable.

C.  Complete the “Health Factors” section in the “Population Health Data Brief Template” attachment by doing the following:

1.  Complete the 14 items in the “Health Factors Table” subsection for the selected county, the top U.S. performer, and the state.

2.  Complete the “Comparison of Data” subsection (suggested length of 1–2 paragraphs), including an analysis of background information on health rankings and the purpose of comparing county data to the top performers.

D.  Complete the “Summary” section in the attached “Population Health Data Brief Template” by doing the following:

1.  Complete the “Significant Finding(s)” subsection (suggested length of 1–2 paragraphs), including one main health trend from part B that has the potential to be redirected by an action plan to significantly improve community health outcomes in the county.

2.  Complete the “Action Plan(s)” subsection (suggested length of 1–2 sentences), including the initial steps needed for implementing an action plan to address the main health trend in part D1.

a.  Complete the “Services or Programs” subsection (suggested length of 1–2 sentences) with a discussion of the services or programs that may be introduced in the county to address the identified health trend(s) from part D2.

b.  Complete the “Raise Public Awareness and Promote Public Engagement” subsection (suggested length of 1–2 paragraphs), including a description of three ways that the advanced professional nurse should use technology to integrate informatics into practice.

c.  Complete the “Monitoring and Evaluating Action Plan” subsection (suggested length of 1–2 paragraphs), including a summary of how the elements of the proposed action plan from parts D2a and D2b will be monitored.

E.  Complete the “Data Sources & Methods” section in the attached “Population Health Data Brief Template,” including the sources you used to gather data for your data brief.

F.  Acknowledge sources, using APA-formatted in-text citations and references, for content that is quoted, paraphrased, or summarized.

G.  Demonstrate professional communication in the content and presentation of your submission.

NOTE: The Performance Assessment should be uploaded as a separate attachment(s) and should not be included in the E-portfolio or submitted as a link.

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