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 Note—
objective 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 efficiency—those 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 don’t 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 don’t 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. Don’t 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:
Your Stanhope and Lancaster textbook, 8th 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 roads—in good repair or rundown?
Are there curbs and sidewalks? What types of houses and housing do you see—apartments,
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 housing—
lawns? 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.
Post any questions to the Course Discussion Board for instructor feedback.