Conducting

and Reporting the Windshield Survey

The Windshield Survey is a component of the Physical Assessment subsystem. It is a scientific method commonly utilized to gather
data within communities. It requires you to travel throughout your identified community and gather data that you can SEE, that you
can HEAR, that you can SMELL, and can perhaps TOUCH. For the Windshield survey, you should imagine you are a community health
nurse assigned to conduct this assessment in a community you know nothing about, and will be visiting for the first time.

Please note that in a Windshield Survey the data collected is OBJECTIVE rather than subjective. You must not add information that
you possess because you live in the identified community; it must not include your perspective or beliefs about what you feel the
community contains, or its strengths/weaknesses from your perspective as a citizen living within that community. It must not be
data you collected from looking at a community website or reading the community newspaper. It data gathered by driving around
the community and observing it. Please Noteobjective data may include comments from other community members you speak
with while conducting the windshield survey. For example, a student spoke with a person waiting for a bus and asked some
questions about the bus system efficiencythose statements may be used for data and cited as a personal communication.

In your write-up of the Windshield survey, avoid making statements about the community that imply strengths or weaknesses that
are not objective data you gathered, and avoid statements that present data as if it is fact, when in reality it is your personal opinion.

See the course text pages 409 and 410 for a description of the Windshield Survey. There is also an example of a completed
Windshield Survey within the sample assessment paper linked on Project 1 Page 10.

Conducting the Windshield Survey

You must drive all around your selected community. For those living in very large communities, you are allowed to do a sampling of
your community. Please confirm this with your Instructor before you start the Windshield Survey.

Ideally, you should ask someone else to drive while you observe the surroundings. We understand that it is not always possible for
students to have someone else drive, so please pull over and make notes when necessary. Alternatively, you could take the public
transit system or walk around.

You will want to take pictures of key points of interest or concern in the community. Pretty pictures are great but dont forget to
take some of the problem areas as well. If you use pictures from an outside resource, you must cite and reference them.

Remember you are objectively assessing the community, so be sure to note its rough areas as well as its nice areas. You are not
writing a brochure for the Chamber of Commerce, you are doing an objective assessment.

As you drive around the community, stay safe. If there are areas of the community that you do not feel safe driving through, then
dont do it. Your sense of danger or concern is assessment information itself and can be included in the assessment segment called
Further Information of Interest.

Remember too that besides what you see, hear, smell, and touch, you can also talk with community members you meet while
conducting the survey.

Writing up the Windshield Survey

This is best done in paragraph format. Do not use tables or charts. You must mention everything included in the Windshield Survey
found in Table 18-5 of your textbook.

You should include maps and pictures. Dont use clip art. This is not a project we are trying to cutesy up. Use actual pictures and
maps of the community. Pictures, maps, or images you retrieve from resources must have a citation and reference.

Be sure to include only objective data:

Example of a correct description: There are 10 parks within the boundaries of the community. They range in apparent size of an
acre, with quiet places to sit, picnic tables, and well-kept playground equipment-- to several acres that also include baseball and
soccer fields. All parks have paved parking areas. All areas have mature trees and are well-maintained with cut grass, and are free of
graffiti and trash. There are families with children of all ages that appear to be enjoying each of the facilities. This nurse stopped at a
park to speak with a resident, who stated the parks are generally busy on the weekends during the spring months (B. Smith,
personal communication, October 10, 2014).

Example of an incorrect description: There are 10 parks within the boundaries of the community. They range in apparent size of an
acre, with quiet places to sit, picnic tables, and well-kept playground equipment-- to several acres that also include baseball and
soccer fields. The baseball and soccer fields are often in use during the late afternoons and into dusk during the spring and summer
months. During the winter months some of the fields may be flooded to provide ice skating opportunities. All parks have paved
parking areas. On the weekends the parking can be tight. All areas have mature trees and are well- maintained with cut grass, and
are free of graffiti and trash. There are families with children of all ages that appear to be enjoying each of the facilities.

Why is this incorrect? Did this nurse see all of this during the Windshield Survey? Did s/he SEE the fields being used during the
spring and summer months; or SEE that they are used during the late afternoons or just before dusk? How did this nurse know the
parking can be tight on the weekend? Are these pieces of information this nurse knows only due to being a resident of this
community? if so, these are not objective data points from the survey, but knowledge only a resident would know. Such types of
information can be included in the section of the community assessment called Further Information of Interest.

What to include:
th
Your Stanhope and Lancaster textbook, 8 edition, Table 18-5 on page 420, indicates precisely what you must assess. This is the
least you must assess and report, but you can include more detail if you wish, as long as it is objective data.

Like in physical assessment of a person where you have a guideline for what to assess, a good nurse knows that you sometime want
to assess some item or system in more detail. The same is true of a Windshield Survey Assessment. Use Table 18-5 as a guideline for
what you must assess, but as necessary and appropriate go beyond the guideline and collect further information. See below: You do
not have to assess every one of these items below, but be thinking about them as you drive around (any that are also on the
Windshield Survey in Table 18-5 must be assessed).

Consider the following:
What types of streets are prevalent within your community? Are they main thoroughfares or quiet streets with stop signs? Is there
much traffic? Are many people walking? Riding bicycles? Busses? How many bus stops? Trains? Access to cabs? What are the main
modes of transportation that you see? What is the condition of the roadsin good repair or rundown? Are there curbs and
sidewalks? What types of houses and housing do you seeapartments, single family homes, townhomes? Which are most
prevalent? Is it dense or spread out? Near commerce, or are the houses separated from business? What is the condition of the
housinglawns? Rundown or well kept? Small or large? What and how many churches do you see? Of which denominations? What
commerce do you see? Strip malls or a downtown area/boutique area? What businesses do you see? Are the buildings in good
repair? Are there many vacancies? What and how many grocery stores do you see? What type of people do you see or did you
meet? What ages are predominant? Lots of children? Teens/ Older adults? 20-30 year olds? What ethnicities do you see represented
as you survey? How many and what types of health care do you see? Medical offices, or urgent care centers, or Walgreens clinics?
Are there neighborhood clinics? Do you see any social service agencies as you travel through your neighborhood? A town hall? Do
you see any schools or day care centers? What condition are those locations? Do you see any parks or recreation areas? What types
of things do you see within them? Areas just to sit and reflect? Playing fields? Pools? Skating? Community Centers or Lakes? What
natural resources do you see? Water treatment plants? Railroads? Do you see a police or fire station, how many? What types of
restaurants do you see? And on and on.
Feel free to stop and talk to people during your survey travels as well, if you feel it is appropriate and safe to do so.

The windshield survey is a valuable way to help you make inferences as to the strengths and weaknesses of your community. For
example, if the nurse notices that there are only Quick Marts available and no grocery stores within easy access, s/he might infer
that access to healthy foods such as fresh fruits and vegetables is reduced and can impact overall long term health. S/he can then do
further data collection in the other community subsystems to see if other data support poor nutrition within the community. In
many cases, a CHN is able to pinpoint a strength, weakness, concern or condition because of something s/he saw during the
Windshield Survey. These inferences are part of analysis and diagnoses so are written in that part of the Community Nursing
Process/Care Plan, and not within the Windshield Survey write up itself.