Defining the community is an important first step. Some key questions to answer include: What is the geographic boundary of the community you will assess? Is it a neighborhood, city, county or larger region? You’ll want to choose a community you have access to and are able to assess within your timeframe. Be sure to clearly define the target community in your project proposal and have your faculty advisor approve of your defined community.

Establishing community partnerships is crucial. Reach out to community organizations like local public health departments, community health centers, hospitals, non-profits focused on health and social services. Explain your project and ask if they would be willing to participate through providing data, assisting with community engagement activities or serving on an advisory committee. Solid partnerships will strengthen your assessment.

Developing an assessment team is recommended. In addition to yourself as the lead, recruit 2-4 other people to assist. This could include your faculty advisor, public health or nursing students, or community volunteers. The team approach allows for division of tasks and brings different skills to the process. Be sure to plan team roles, decision making processes and communication.

Review existing data sources on health indicators and social determinants for your community. Consult sources like county health rankings, community health needs assessments from local hospitals, public health department statistics and reports from community organizations. Gather both quantitative data like rates of chronic disease, mortality, health behaviors and qualitative data on community perspectives. This provides a baseline understanding of community health issues.

Design and conduct key stakeholder interviews. Develop an interview guide with open-ended questions to learn more about community health issues from leaders and providers in sectors like health, education, social services, government and business. Conduct 8-12 interviews either in-person or by phone/video call depending on COVID protocols. Take detailed notes during the interviews to analyze for common themes.

Engage community members directly through surveys and/or focus groups. Create a simple paper or online survey to distribute broadly and solicit community perspectives. Questions could focus on health concerns, barriers to care and ideas for improvement. Also conduct 2-3 focus groups with 6-10 community members each to get in-depth feedback. Focus groups can be done virtually via video call.

Analyze all collected qualitative and quantitative data as a team. Look for common themes and priorities that emerge through interview and community engagement analysis. Compare findings to existing data sources to identify any gaps or corroborated issues. Develop a preliminary list of prioritized health needs for the community.

Present findings to community stakeholders and gather feedback. Schedule a virtual meeting to share what you learned from the assessment process and sought partner input on the identified priority health needs. Incorporate any additional feedback received.

Write the final community health needs assessment report. The 3000+ character report should include: an introduction on the assessment purpose and process; a description of the defined community and available baseline health data; a summary of key findings from stakeholder interviews and community engagement; a prioritized list of 3-5 top community health needs based on all analyzed data; recommendations for next steps community organizations could take to address prioritized needs.

Present the final report findings to your faculty advisor and nursing program. Prepare a 15-20 minute virtual presentation highlighting the assessment process, key findings and prioritized needs identified. Give a summary of the final report and lessons learned from conducting the assessment. Gather feedback.

This detailed community health needs assessment process conducted as part of a nursing capstone project provides excellent experience in conducting primary research, community partnership development, qualitative and quantitative data analysis, priority identification, and professional stakeholder reporting.