Housing and Zoning

According to Vollman, McFarlane, and Anderson (2004), community assessment is the act of better understanding a community and its population by taking public transportation, driving, or walking and making essential observations about the community populating such localities and its dynamics. The data collected in the windshield is utilized by Community Health Nurses to determine the various features and what can be done to help the community because the results provide a detailed account of the community, its population, and its health.

The data acquired can be used to determine the community's healthcare requirements; nursing practice can be improved with proper analysis and intervention. The effect of the culture, the community’s functional dimension and the geographic on the community health nursing can easily be noted. This paper is a report of a windshield survey conducted by a group of Concord in North Carolina on December 19, 2016. The data collected enabled surveyors to make necessary assumptions about the community in the area and aided in the identification of the needs of the population

Elements

Community Observation

Boundaries

The community’s boundaries are mainly physical boundaries including Davidson highway and Highway 49. The end of the community is not demarcated by clear physical boundaries. However, the economic status boundary is very distinct. it was observed that the region neighboring the Concord Mall contain newly built higher income large apartment blocks while a collection of higher and low-income housing was witnessed in the rural areas. The higher income neighborhood could be distinguished from the low-income areas from clear signs christened showing the details of the developers.

Housing and Zoning

The oldest houses seemed to be built in the early 1900 and with the latest still looking very brand new. Both the new and the old homes are spread evenly across the community but with many of the old houses located on the farm lands. Single-family homes were the majority in the area with few complexes located in the area too.

Apartments with brick and vinyl exterior are visible including the latest buildings around the Concord Mall. Section 8 contains vintage housing seemingly built in the 1980s. Brick, Aluminum, Wood, vinyl-sliding, and shake materials are the main materials used in the building of the traditional and the manufactured homes for the single families.

The new houses are mostly storied while the traditional houses were made in a manner depicting the set up of a ranch.

Signs of Decay

Many of empty retail spaces were observable in the urban centers and some buildings seemed abandoned. The streets were moderately littered and it’s around the mall that well maintained new retail centers were operational, unlike the rural areas that had closed businesses. Car dealers were the main business observed in the main streets.

Open spaces

Most open spaces were assumed to be grazing fields for the cattle or used specifically by farmers during the farming seasons. Limited open spaces were scarce in the urban centers and not even a single tree could be seen in the urban centers with the open spaces privately owned.

Ethnicity

Evidence on ethnicity was very minimal with a small Hispanic influence realized in the population and few restaurants such as the Mexican lindo demonstrating this effect.

religion

The fact that the survey was conducted during the week, less activity was witnessed but it was evident that Christianity dominated the community’s religion.

Transportation

The main form of transportation was by car evidenced by the absence of sidewalks illustrating that walking was not common among the rural population. Public transport also seemed to aid the movement of the population as illustrated by numerous sign.

General health

Cigarette smoking was common and obese people could also be seen. CMC hospital was some minutes away from the community and seemingly was the only medical facility around.

Health risks

The population of this region is at a high risk of suffering from lung cancer, cardiovascular diseases, stroke, and central nervous system disorders among other health related problems.

Counseling sessions and rehabilitation center should be established immediately to combat the vice. Proper medication measures should be initiated for the obese that majorly come from the high-end regions in the locality (Stanhope and Knollmueller, 1997).

Health care needs

Counseling sessions and rehabilitation center should be established immediately to combat the vice. Proper medication measures should be initiated for the obese that majorly come from the high-end regions in the locality.

To the men, proper canceling and rehabilitation center will help. Job opportunities will also boost their morale as most of them are jobless and smoke to pass time. Therapies and exercises were the best option put forward for the women and to change their eating habits to help fight obesity

Demography

With reference to the registry at the CMC hospital, most of the men outpatients suffer from chest and lungs related problems which the hospital associates to high rates of smoking by the victims. This occasionally results in deaths especially between the ages of 29 and 38. Obesity is highly witnessed in the women from the rich parts of the region associated with poor diet .this too leading to death and there were also few cases of obese children registered (Stanhope and Lancaster, 2010).

Politics

There was no any sign or evidence of political affiliation in the community.

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References

Stanhope, Marcia and Jeanette Lancaster. (2010). Foundations of Nursing in the Community, Third Edition. St. Louis: Mosby Elsevier.

Stanhope, Marcia and Ruth N. Knollmueller. (1997). Public and community health nurse’s consultant: A health promotion guide. Maryland Heights: Mosby

Vollman, A. R., Anderson, E. T. & McFarlane, J. (2004). Canadian community as partner.

Philadelphia, PA: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.