Omaha System in Minnesota: Innovations in public health nursing education

Background: Health informatics and population-based nursing are core components of contemporary nursing curricula. Students in public health or community health often perform a brief community assessment called a windshield survey as part of their practicum experience. A windshield survey is a combination of observations that help to describe a community and its health. The Omaha System is a standardized terminology frequently used by public health nurses within public health informatics systems (Martin, 2005). A community-level modifier in the Omaha System Problem Classification Scheme allows for documentation of community-level assessments, interventions and outcomes. The Omaha System is a suitable terminology to capture windshield survey data in a structured format. The purpose of this study is to refine and evaluate a structured windshield survey tool for use in public health nursing education. Methods: We use innovative communication technology to engage the international public health nursing community. Faculty and students complete an online checklist to identify which of 10 problems they identified during their community windshield survey. Resulting problem checklists and accompanying narrative data in comments are being analyzed using mixed methods. Results: Preliminary results reveal signs/symptoms as well as open-ended comments in three domains of the Omaha System: Environmental, Health Related Behaviors, and Psychosocial. Descriptive analyses will be completed at the conclusion of the study in May 2012. Conclusions: The instrument will be revised based on data from student responses. This innovative teaching/learning tool allows students to experience standardized terminology in describing community assessments, the first step towards measuring community-level outcomes.