Question

2. What are the advantages and disadvantages for this community of using the following needs assessment tools? Which assessment tool did Nurse Jean use? A. Community forum: an open meeting of a community, group, or organization B. Statistical indicators: use of existing data to evaluate the problem C. Surveys: measurement of total or sample client population through interview or questionnaire

Answer 1

1. COMMUNITY FORUM

ADVANTAGES-

The advantages of community forums would firstly include,

• Since its an open meeting, a face to face discuss is possible where ideas can be shared and collaborations can be made
• The message can be conveyed to a larger group of people
• The orator/persuasive behaviour of the person incharge can greatly influence that mindset of the people involved
• Commitment to a task in a one on one meeting is much more affective than via mails or informational flyers. Sense of accountability can be seen in community forums
• A feeling of being part of the community, shared sense of responsibility
• Everyone feels included

DISADVANTAGES-

• Lukewarm reaction from the people involved.
• Its often time consuming. Could also mean that the time which would otherwise be used in generating profit for the business, is used in the open meeting which might not be as appreciable by the owner of the company in this case
• If the ability of the speaker or chair is not up to the mark, the information to be conveyed might not be done as effectively
• Place. Could be expensive to accommodate a large number of people.
• Could be disruptive if the most people do not agree with what is being said or tried to conveyed.

2. STATISTICAL INDICATORS

ADVANTAGES-

• its usually cheaper to carry out and less time consuming.
• Correlations and regressions can be made easily
• They are precise
• Could be misleading in some cases as such data are usually secondary data and the problems could vary over the years

DISADVANTAGES-

• incomplete data would provide a false inference and there by a solution to a non existing problem
• Computing large amount of data could be difficult if the person is not very familiar with statistical tools.

3. SURVEYS

ADVANTAGES-

• Can be easily carried out
• Would not require one on one meetings and can be done completely online either via mails or google forms
• Inexpensive
• The survey if online can be carried out independent to the availability of the administrator
• Un biased

DISADVANTAGES

• Depends on the enthusiasm of the respondent
• Some of the questions asked in the survey may be controversial, which the respondent may not be comfortable answering
• Depends on the memory or the level of involvement by the respondent.
• Non responses can cause bias in the data collected
• Close ended questions may not be valid in all questions and giving numerous options could be difficult to evaluate.

The assessment tool used by Nurse Jane in this case is a SURVEY