Community Health Assessment Exercise

Identification of Community Health Issue

Every other community has unique public health challenges and needs. Public health nurses and other concerned professionals must conduct community assessments and make the necessary nursing intervention. According to Villalonga-Olives (2018), Public health professionals’ roles and scope of responsibility extend beyond conducting these assessments and recommendations to participating in the implementation process. This paper is a concise account of the entire process, featuring three critical stages of the community assessment for public health needs, leading to recommendations for nursing interventions that could help improve people’s health outcomes. With the aid of the windshield assessment tool, it is shown that residents of Southeast Fort Worth in Houston, Texas, require public health interventions to help them cope with an imminent threat of medical conditions attributed to poor quality of air due to industrial pollution.

Community Health Assessment Exercise

The Southeast Fort Worth neighborhood is adjacent to industrial establishments that have subjected the residents to various forms of pollution over the past decade. Neighbors consider noise and air pollution a major public health risk and threat to their lives. A scan over the area revealed a zoned area near Echo Heights, which is considered the “industrial growth center,” meaning that residents have to cope with the air pollution, exposing them to many public health risks. A tracking facility located adjacent to the residential area, particularly along Parker Henderson Road, sits where children had a good time playing just a few years ago. Residents can hardly get continuous sleep due to echoing rumbles.

A few miles down Parker Henderson Road is the Prairie Dog Park, which industrial facilities have since replaced. Noticeable establishments include a natural drilling facility amidst the green space to the west of Lake Arlington. The industrial growth center across the street, just adjacent to the Praire Dog Park, features trucking facilities, shipping centers, assembly plants, and garbage collection sites. Notably, the growth center neighbors the W.M. Green Elementary School and the Echo Heights residence.

Community Health in the Larger Context

The health implications of having the industrial growth center in the neighborhood are apparent. Residents of this black and Hispanic-dominated neighborhood have their health compromised due to contamination and air pollution. Samsel (2022) notes that air quality is no longer guaranteed, especially now that more industrial facilities sprout around Echo Heights, Wilbourn, and other neighborhoods. Indeed, the arrival of industrial facilities led to a noticeable uptick in various diseases, including cancer, leukemia in children, miscarriages among mothers, and unexplained strange loss of hair among the residents. Members are afraid that many of the deaths reported over the years are attributed to the mushrooming industries.

Health Nursing Intervention Recommendations

Community health interventions are necessary if authorities are to help residents of the Southeast Fort Worth neighborhoods to arrest the situation. The industrial facilities must be held accountable and responsible for the damage resulting from operations. It might be necessary to devise policies against operations that lead to the emission of toxic gases into the atmosphere. Importantly, local authorities must organize screening exercises to identify people who have been detrimentally affected by the poor air quality due to industrial emissions. Secondly, research to determine the public health implications of industrial zoning on the immediate community is recommended as one of the second nurse diagnosis interventions. Assessment of these interventions requires a long-term approach, as it might be necessary to keep track of changes or improvements in public health outcomes over a prolonged period of up to a decade.

References

Samsel, H. (2022, March 23). In industrial southeast Fort Worth, neighbors say they’ve had enough of air pollution and health issues. Fort Worth Report. https://fortworthreport.org/2022/03/23/in-industrial-southeast-fort-worth-neighbors-say-theyve-had-enough-of-air-pollution-health-issues/

Villalonga-Olives, E., Wind, T. R., & Kawachi, I. (2018). Social capital interventions in public health: A systematic review. Social Science & Medicine, 212, 203-218. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2018.07.022