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NRS-425 Community Assessment and Windshield Survey: Guide + Example
NRS-425 Windshield Survey and Assessment
The NRS-425 Community Assessment and Windshield Survey is the benchmark assignment in GCU’s Health Promotion and Population Health course. It asks you to assess a community using three data sources — the County Health Rankings, the EPA Environmental Justice Dashboard, and a windshield survey you conduct by driving through the community — then synthesize your findings into a completed template that identifies a priority health issue. The assignment is template-based, not an essay, but students lose points by writing vague observations instead of data-driven descriptions. This guide explains what each section of the template requires, shows a fully worked example using a fictitious community, and tells you exactly what to look for during your windshield survey.
What Is the NRS-425 Community Assessment?
The Community Assessment is the Topic 2 benchmark in NRS-425, worth 125 points and tied to a program competency. It is Part 2 of the multi-topic Community Teaching Project that runs across the entire course.
You select a community site in Topic 1, then in Topic 2 you assess that community using secondary data from the County Health Rankings and the Environmental Justice Dashboard, combined with primary observations from your windshield survey. The deliverable is a completed template with six sections: community description, windshield survey findings, County Health Rankings summary, Environmental Justice Dashboard summary, priority health issue, and two citations.
APA style is not required for the body, but solid academic writing is expected and sources must be documented using APA formatting guidelines.
What Is a Windshield Survey?
A windshield survey is a systematic community observation conducted from a moving vehicle. You drive through the community and document what you see — housing conditions, transportation infrastructure, health care facilities, food access, environmental hazards, and social gathering points.
The windshield survey is not a research study — it is a structured first impression that provides context for the secondary data. It answers the question: what does this community actually look like on the ground?
During your drive, observe and note:
- Housing — condition, age, density, and type of residences
- Transportation — roads, sidewalks, public transit, accessibility
- Commercial areas — grocery stores vs. convenience stores, pharmacies, restaurants
- Health services — hospitals, clinics, urgent care, distance from residential areas
- Environment — air quality, industrial sites, green spaces, litter, lighting
- Social infrastructure — churches, community centers, schools, parks
- Advertising — tobacco, alcohol, or health-related billboards
- People — who is visible, activity levels, perceived safety
The best windshield surveys connect observations to health outcomes: “no full-service grocery within two miles of the eastern neighborhoods” is stronger than “the area looked run-down.”
How Do You Use the County Health Rankings?
The County Health Rankings website provides county-level data on health outcomes and health factors. You navigate to your county and extract the key metrics for your template.
Focus on these categories:
- Health Outcomes — premature death, low birthweight, poor mental health days
- Health Behaviors — obesity, smoking, physical inactivity, excessive drinking
- Clinical Care — uninsured rate, physician-to-population ratio, preventable hospital stays
- Social and Economic Factors — poverty, graduation rates, unemployment, child poverty
- Physical Environment — air quality, housing problems, drinking-water violations
The rubric rewards you for comparing your county’s data to state and national averages — not just listing numbers. “The adult obesity rate of 38% exceeds the state average of 32%” is stronger than “obesity is 38%.”
How Do You Use the Environmental Justice Dashboard?
The EPA Environmental Justice Screening and Mapping Tool identifies census tracts where environmental burden overlaps with socioeconomic vulnerability. You enter your community’s zip code or county and review the indicators.
Key data points to extract:
- Particulate matter and ozone exposure — air quality metrics
- Proximity to hazardous waste, Superfund sites, or wastewater discharge
- Demographic indicators — percentage of people of color, low-income households, limited English proficiency
- Cumulative burden score — the combined environmental and demographic index
The purpose is to show whether environmental injustice compounds health disparities in your community. If the EJ Dashboard flags your area above the 80th percentile nationally for any indicator, that is a significant finding worth highlighting.
How Do You Identify a Priority Health Issue?
You identify a priority health issue by triangulating your three data sources: what the County Health Rankings reveal about disease burden, what the Environmental Justice Dashboard reveals about environmental exposures, and what your windshield survey reveals about the lived reality on the ground.
The strongest priority-issue selections meet three criteria:
- Data-supported — the County Health Rankings show the issue is worse than state/national averages.
- Observed on the ground — your windshield survey confirms the contributing factors.
- Actionable — a community health nurse can realistically address it through education and prevention.
Common priority issues include diabetes and obesity in food deserts, asthma in areas with poor air quality, substance use in communities with high poverty, and hypertension in communities with limited primary-care access. Align your selection with a Healthy People 2030 objective to demonstrate public-health relevance.
How Is the Community Assessment Graded?
The benchmark is graded on the completeness and specificity of your template, the quality of your data integration, and your justification for the priority health issue. The rubric rewards:
- Specific, observation-based windshield survey descriptions — not vague impressions.
- Accurate data from County Health Rankings and EJ Dashboard with source citations.
- Clear connections between the data sources and the priority health issue.
- Two properly formatted citations in APA style.
- Solid academic writing even though full APA format is not required for the body.
Benchmark – Community Teaching Project Part 2 Example
For Reference Use Only: This worked sample uses a fictitious community for demonstration purposes. Need a custom community assessment completed for your specific county and community site? Reach out to us on WhatsApp for a fast response. Message us on WhatsApp: +1 564-544-6924
Community Teaching Project: Part 2
Community Assessment
[Student Name]
College of Nursing and Health Care Professions, Grand Canyon University
NRS-425: Health Promotion and Population Health
[Instructor Name]
[Due Date]
Benchmark — Community Teaching Project: Part 2
Community Assessment
| Student Name | [Student Name] |
| Faculty Name | [Instructor Name] |
| County Name | Clearwater County |
| Community Organization | Clearwater Community Health Center |
| Zip Code | 34601 |
| Community Description
Clearwater County is a mid-sized suburban county in the southeastern United States with a population of approximately 165,000. The County Health Rankings data indicate that 18% of residents live below the federal poverty line, and the uninsured rate is 14%. The Environmental Justice Dashboard flags elevated particulate-matter exposure in the eastern industrial corridor, where lower-income and minority populations are concentrated. The windshield survey revealed a mix of single-family subdivisions, aging apartment complexes, and several mobile-home communities. Chain pharmacies and a regional hospital are located along the main commercial corridor, but the eastern neighborhoods lack a primary-care clinic within walking distance. Public transit service is limited to two bus routes operating on weekday schedules only. |
| Windshield Survey Findings
During the drive-through observation, the following were noted: well-maintained commercial areas along the western corridor with grocery stores, pharmacies, and urgent-care clinics; deteriorating infrastructure in the eastern neighborhoods, including cracked sidewalks, limited street lighting, and visibly older housing stock; several convenience stores but no full-service grocery within a two-mile radius of the eastern zone, suggesting a food desert; a community park with a walking trail in the western area but no comparable green space in the east; a fire station and sheriff substation centrally located; churches and a small community center serving as informal gathering points in the eastern neighborhoods; billboards advertising tobacco products concentrated in lower-income areas. |
| County Health Rankings Summary
Health Outcomes: the county ranks in the bottom quartile of the state for premature death and low birthweight. Health Factors: adult obesity rate is 38%, adult smoking rate is 22%, and physical inactivity rate is 31%. Clinical Care: the ratio of population to primary-care physicians is 2,100:1, well above the state average of 1,400:1. Social and Economic Factors: the high-school graduation rate is 81%, and 24% of children live in poverty. Physical Environment: 12% of the population faces severe housing problems, and drinking-water violations have been reported in two of the past five years. |
| Environmental Justice Dashboard Summary
The EPA Environmental Justice Dashboard identifies the eastern census tracts as scoring above the 80th percentile nationally for particulate-matter 2.5 exposure and above the 75th percentile for proximity to hazardous-waste facilities. These tracts have a higher proportion of residents who are people of color and residents with limited English proficiency compared to the county average. The overlay of environmental burden and socioeconomic vulnerability classifies the eastern corridor as an environmental-justice community under federal screening criteria. |
| Priority Health Issue
Type 2 diabetes and obesity represent the priority health issue for this community. The adult obesity rate of 38% exceeds both the state and national averages, and the County Health Rankings data show elevated rates of physical inactivity and limited access to healthy foods in the eastern neighborhoods. The windshield survey confirmed the absence of a full-service grocery store in the area most affected, reinforcing the data-driven identification of a food desert. Addressing this issue through community education on nutrition, physical activity, and diabetes prevention aligns with Healthy People 2030 objectives and targets the population most affected by health disparities. |
NRS-425-Community-Assessment-Windshield-Survey-Sample (Click to Download)
References
County Health Rankings & Roadmaps. (2024). Clearwater County, FL. University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute. https://www.countyhealthrankings.org
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. (2024). EJScreen: Environmental Justice Screening and Mapping Tool. https://www.epa.gov/ejscreen
Common Mistakes to Avoid
- Writing vague windshield survey observations — “the neighborhood looked poor” loses points; “35% of visible homes had deferred maintenance, and no primary-care clinic was within walking distance” earns them.
- Listing data without comparison — always compare county data to state or national averages.
- Choosing a priority issue that doesn’t match the data — the issue must be supported by all three sources.
- Forgetting the Environmental Justice Dashboard — many students complete the health rankings but skip the EJ section entirely.
- Missing citations — the template requires at least two, documented in APA format.
Other GCU RN-to-BSN Course Guides
Taking other courses this term? We have complete assignment guides with worked examples:
- HLT-362V Applied Statistics for Health Care — every assignment with worked examples, Excel formulas, and APA papers.
- PHI-413V Ethical and Spiritual Decision Making — benchmark case studies on healing and autonomy, death and dying, and spiritual needs assessment.
More course guides publishing soon — bookmark this page or message us on WhatsApp to get notified.
NRS-425 Community Assessment and Windshield Survey FAQ
What is a windshield survey in nursing?
A windshield survey is a systematic community observation conducted from a moving vehicle. The nurse drives through the community and documents observations about housing, transportation, health services, food access, environmental conditions, and social infrastructure to assess community health needs.
What data sources do I need for the NRS-425 community assessment?
You need three data sources: the County Health Rankings website for health outcomes and health factors, the EPA Environmental Justice Dashboard for environmental burden and demographic vulnerability, and your own windshield survey observations from driving through the community.
How do I choose a priority health issue?
Choose a priority health issue by triangulating all three data sources. The issue should be supported by County Health Rankings data that show it exceeds state or national averages, confirmed by windshield survey observations, and aligned with a Healthy People 2030 objective.
Does the community assessment require APA format?
APA style is not required for the body of the template, but solid academic writing is expected and your two citations must be documented using APA formatting guidelines.
How many citations does the community assessment need?
The template requires at least two citations from credible sources. County Health Rankings and the EPA Environmental Justice Dashboard are the most commonly cited. Additional credible sources such as census data or state health department reports strengthen the assessment.
About the Author
This guide was prepared by the Gradevia academic team, specialists in nursing and health-sciences coursework support for students at GCU, WGU, Walden, and Liberty University. Our writers hold graduate degrees in nursing, public health, and community health. We focus on helping busy working nurses understand the method, not just the answer.
Article Update Log
- June 20, 2026 — Initial publication. Guide to the NRS-425 Community Assessment and Windshield Survey benchmark: what to observe during the windshield survey, how to use County Health Rankings and the Environmental Justice Dashboard, how to identify a priority health issue, a fully worked example using a fictitious community, grading notes, and FAQ.
