Basic Windshield Survey- Sentinel Town®

Lucreshia Jackson

American Sentinel College of Nursing & Health Sciences

Dr. Teri Logghe

20th September 2022

Basic Windshield Survey- Sentinel Town®

After touring Sentinel Town, I collected information about the area and the community living there. I found the geographical area of Sentinel Town to be a rural community. The overall population in this town is 609 people. The town has people of different ethnic groups. The group that comprises the majority of the people in this town is the whites who make up 91.8% of the total population, the Latinos follow with 7.6% of the total population, African Americans at 2%, and the least population is that of American Indians at 0.3%. To break this down further, the population of Sentinel City comprises 599 whites, 46 Latinos, 12 African Americans, and 2 American Indians (Sentinel, 2022). The majority of this population is between the ages of 24 to 44 years which is 24% of the total population. Further breakdown of the population is that those below the age of 5 years constitute 3.6% of the populace, those between the age of 18 and 24 at 7.5% of the population, those between the age of 45 and 65 years at 23.2% of the population, between the age of 65 and 84 years at 21.8%, and those beyond the age of 85 years constitute 1.5% of the total population (Sentinel, 2022).

The average household income in this town is $27,024 while the median family income is found to be $35,625 annually. 73 individuals in this town live below the poverty level which is estimated to be 12% of the total population (Sentinel, 2022). There were no statistics with regards to unemployment levels or unemployment which means that these rates are low in this town.

Sentinel town consists of a very small community with four dirt roads surrounding the whole town. There are also two streets in Sentinel town with the major streets that go up through the interior of the town and with poor street lights, no sidewalks, and with potholes. There were also bridges across the local river that enabled the residents to cross over. The town is also surrounded by mountains and hundreds of acres of farmlands. At the center of Sentinel town are historical buildings like hotels and SMEs that are poorly structured. One of the hotels is said to have been structured in the year 1935. I could observe many pickup trucks, a gas station, a school, a single general store, a wood mill, a single produce stand, and a single furniture store that seemed to be running out of business.

I could not see so many children on the streets but there were many adults. I did not see stray animals in the streets but I could observe many animals while taking the tour such as horses, dogs, skunks, pigs, and cows that were in the yard of their owners. I also observed a single church that looked to be non-denominational.

The overall social and health services of Sentinel Town are poor. The town has a single clinic, Sentinel Health Clinic which closes at 5:00 pm and does not offer weekend hours. Therefore it has limited hours of service. There are no other medical facilities such as doctor offices, wellness centers, hospitals, and urgent care. Therefore, in case of emergencies, the residents would travel to Sentinel City to seek medical care. There is no pharmacy locally and the town depends on the General store that has some over-the-counter medications for assistance. Home Grown health services also provide mobile medical assistance twice at the beginning of each month, every Friday and Saturday at the beginning of the month. The fire department is composed of part-time volunteers who help in emergencies which leads to delays in providing emergency services by around 30 minutes since the volunteers have other jobs.

As I continued with the survey, I noticed that there were fewer apartment complexes in the town. There were however many single-family homes which most were in a good shape but some needed masonry attendance or some paintings. I could not notice any destructed property or houses abandoned. There was a trailer park present in the town whose population was earning around $20,000 annually (Sentinel, 2022). There was also a huge farm that is located just outside the town. There are a few community spaces like parks, a single café, and a single grocery shop. There are also a few trees along the streets and a few road walks. The main hangout neighborhoods are the local church and the schoolyard. The main means of transportation is by use of a car since there is no public transportation in the town and with the roads being unpaved, the residents can’t use bikes or other transportation means. Therefore, the Sentinel town community lacks the recreation and community spaces that would help them in their recreational activities.

The air in this town is not polluted and the residents can access clean water. There are also many cases of burglaries since the street lighting is poor. After a stop at the Sheriff’s office, I accessed some of his file reports and the report indicated a total of four robberies and at least seven cases of aggregated assaults in the previous year. The report also showcased that the town lacks the disaster response plan that is readily available. The town lacks firemen and EMT specialists. However, this town does not seem to be disaster-prone as the Sheriff’s report indicated no reports of disasters.

This rural town is also limited in opportunities for economic growth which in turn affects the accessibility of its residents to healthcare. Some of the residents are not able to afford basic things like shelter or food. Other factors that contribute to the health concerns of these residents are the clinic not being open during the weekends and no local pharmacy. Health concern in this town is therefore linked to the health disparity within the target population as the town has not had enough resources to provide healthcare services that are adequate to the residents. The community is the one that provides the solution to this problem. For example, the local clinic provides medical resources and the local church provides the room for community gatherings and other activities. Therefore the church and the clinic are the only health-promoting places in Sentinel Town.

The largest health concern in this town is diabetes with most of the services being focused on treating the condition. Cancer follow-ups and treatment also have the most referrals in the Sentinel City hospital. There are also many concerns among the residents due to increased alcohol and drug abuse and also increasing problems concerning mental health. Controversial matters provided through reports from local sources include neglect and lack of immunization of the children, especially among the immigrants into the community. Minor injuries are the main contributor to the visits to emergency departments.

My target population in this town is children under the age of 5 years who constitute 3.6% of the total population in Sentinel Town (Sentinel, 2022). The major health concern among this age group is the lack of immunization. According to the 2021 health report By WHO, the number of children that were completely vaccinated had increased by 5 million children as compared to 2019 (WHO, 2022). Another health concern of this target population is the lack of space in the town for recreational and exercise activities for these age groups. According to a report by CDC, physical exercises help reduce chronic diseases among children, build endurance and strong muscles, and improve their memory and attention. The town, therefore, requires campaigns to address these two concerns

The tour to Sentinel town, therefore, provides me with the knowledge and the skills to the analysis of the link between the community demographics and health concerns. This will therefore equip me with the skills of analyzing my community and coming up with issues of concern that need to be fixed and improved.

References

CDC. Health Benefits of Physical Activity for Children. Retrieved 21 September 2022, from https://www.cdc.gov/physicalactivity/basics/adults/health-benefits-of-physical-activity-for-children.htmlSentinel, C. (2022). Getting on the bus: evaluation of Sentinel City® 3.0 virtual simulation in community/population health clinical placement. International Journal of Nursing Education Scholarship, 17(1).

WHO. (2022). Immunization coverage. Retrieved 21 September 2022, from https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/immunization-coverage