Overview - Develop a 3-4-page educational plan to help improve the health and welfare needs of a vulnerable population in your community. In your plan, include the demographics of your community and the health care needs of the selected vulnerable population.

By successfully completing this assessment, you will demonstrate your proficiency in the following course competencies and assessment criteria:

The implementation of the Affordable Care Act (2010) has changed the focus of community health care to disease prevention. Now persons who would otherwise not seek health care services can access safe, quality, continuity of care. Many from this population are identified as at-risk. They have a strong need to become more educated about their illnesses and learn how to prevent disease progression. The key is promoting health and wellness.

Questions to Consider- To deepen your understanding, you are encouraged to consider the questions below and discuss them with a fellow learner, a work associate, an interested friend, or a member of your professional community.

• What are the demographics of your community in terms of the at-risk population?

• What resources are already in place for this population?

• What is the best method to approach the intervention with this population?

Assessment Instructions

Preparation

• Read the scenario below.

• Reflect on your community and review the literature to obtain recent demographic information regarding population, age, gender, socio-economic status, education, ethnic distribution, types of diseases, and morbidity and mortality rates.

• Once you have gathered this data you should be able to determine what the greatest health care needs are in your community and select an at-risk population that could benefit from a health education program.

• Search the library and the Internet for scholarly and professional peer-reviewed articles on your selected health issue. Examining the nursing literature will help to identify how to approach the health concern that should be addressed within the selected population. You will need at least four articles to use as support for your lesson plan.

Scenario

The Patient Outreach department where you work has asked you to create an education plan for an at-risk population that is underserved in your community.

As an active member of your community you are aware of several health disparities among the population; some members have difficulty accessing care, others have little knowledge of their chronic disease process, and often cultural issues influence medical care.

Patient Outreach would like you to select a group and create a lesson plan that will help educate them and help them better understand how to manage or prevent illness or disease. Consider characteristics of culture, ethnicity, and social background that might affect the target group.

The population you choose could be a subset such as the elderly, an ethnic minority, a lower socio-economic group, or one that you have identified from your own observations. Some examples might be producing a lesson plan on how to manage diabetes or how to decrease the transmission of sexually transmitted diseases.

Directions- Create a lesson plan for your selected population. Be sure you identify the population your lesson is meant for. As you develop your lesson plan, keep in mind the comprehension level of your target audience and the information you want them to take away. Include the following:

• Explain why a specific population in your community qualifies as at-risk.

• Recommend evidence-based strategies to improve health outcomes for this at-risk group.

• Describe health care resources that serve this vulnerable population.

• Explain appropriate nursing interventions that will provide quality care to this vulnerable population.

• Create strategies to support plan implementation, addressing characteristics of culture, ethnicity, and social background that could affect the plan.

Community Health Care Resources Scoring Guide/Criteria

1. Explain why a specific population in a community qualifies as at-risk. Explains why a specific population in a community qualifies as at-risk and supports with relevant data from multiple sources.

2. Describe health care resources that serve vulnerable populations. Describes health care resources that serve vulnerable populations and explains how these resources improve the health and wellness of the community.

3. Explain appropriate evidence-based nursing interventions that will provide quality care to vulnerable populations. Explains appropriate evidence-based nursing interventions that will provide quality care to vulnerable populations. Explains appropriate evidence-based nursing interventions that will provide quality care to vulnerable populations and explains how the interventions respect diversity.

4. Create an evidence-based plan to promote health and wellness in an at-risk population. Creates an evidence-based plan to promote health and wellness in an at-risk population. Creates an evidence-based plan to promote health and wellness in an at-risk population and expands the plan with details and examples.

5. Write content clearly and logically, with correct use of grammar, punctuation, and mechanics. Writes clearly and logically, with correct use of spelling, grammar, punctuation, and mechanics; uses relevant evidence to support a central idea.

6. Correctly format citations and references using APA style. Correctly formats citations and references using APA style. Citations are free from all errors.