# Situation: A public health nurse is assigned to a coastal barangay of 3,200 residents that has never had a community assessment. The Rural Health Unit (RHU) needs baseline data for its multi-year plan. In her first week, before any interviews, the nurse walks and rides through every part of the barangay, noting house construction, water sources, stores, and flood-prone areas, without taking part in residents' activities. What is this method called?

> source: MyMerci (mymerci.kr)  
> url: https://mymerci.kr/pages/nclex_q.php?qn_id=627271  
> language: ko  
> subject: Nursing Practice I — Community Health Nursing

## 문제

Situation: A public health nurse is assigned to a coastal barangay of 3,200 residents that has never had a community assessment. The Rural Health Unit (RHU) needs baseline data for its multi-year plan.

In her first week, before any interviews, the nurse walks and rides through every part of the barangay, noting house construction, water sources, stores, and flood-prone areas, without taking part in residents' activities. What is this method called?

## 보기

1. Spot map preparation
2. Participant observation
3. Preparation of a community profile
4. Ocular (windshield) survey **✔ 정답**

**정답: 4**

## 해설

An ocular (windshield) survey is an informal first look in which the nurse moves through the community, on foot or by vehicle, and observes housing, people, services, environment, and activity. Participant observation requires joining community activities, a spot map is a map showing households, landmarks, water sources, and cases, and a community profile is the compiled set of demographic, socioeconomic, environmental, and health data.

## 심화 해설

Method Identification

The nurse is conducting a systematic visual sweep of the entire barangay—moving through streets by walking and riding, recording housing construction, water sources, stores, and flood-prone areas—without interacting with residents or joining local activities. This passive, observational first pass is the defining feature of an ocular survey, also called a windshield survey.

The key distinction is that the observer remains outside the community’s activities rather than becoming part of them. In participant observation, the nurse would attend a barangay assembly, help at a feeding program, or join a community clean-up to learn from the inside. Here, she only looks and documents from the perimeter of daily life, which is exactly what an ocular survey entails [1].

The windshield survey serves as a structured but informal method for gathering baseline impressions about the physical and social environment. In pediatric residency training, windshield surveys are used specifically to teach learners how to recognize social determinants of health through direct observation of community conditions—housing quality, available resources, and neighborhood characteristics [1]. The nurse in this scenario is doing the same foundational work: building a visual inventory before any interviews or data compilation occurs.

A windshield survey also helps health professionals understand how community conditions influence health outcomes. In the Genesee County REACH program, windshield tours were used to enhance health professionals’ awareness of neighborhood factors linked to infant mortality, such as housing instability, access to safe water, and environmental hazards [2]. The nurse’s attention to flood-prone areas and water sources reflects this same purpose—identifying environmental risks that shape the community’s health profile.

| Method | Nurse’s role | Data produced | Fits this scenario? |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Ocular (windshield) survey | Moves through community; observes without joining activities | Visual inventory of housing, water, stores, flood zones | Yes—exactly what the nurse did |
| Participant observation | Joins and engages in community life | Insider perspective on norms, relationships, routines | No—nurse did not take part in activities |
| Spot map preparation | Plots specific locations on a map | Map showing households, landmarks, cases, water sources | No—nurse noted features but did not create a map |
| Community profile preparation | Compiles multiple data sources into a summary | Demographic, socioeconomic, environmental, health data set | No—this occurs after surveys and interviews are complete |

Watch out! A spot map is a visual product—a map with plotted points—while an ocular survey is a process of observation. The nurse may later use her ocular survey notes to help create a spot map, but the method described in the scenario is the survey itself.

Key point! The ocular or windshield survey is typically the first community assessment method performed because it requires no interviews, no sampling, and no prior relationship with residents. It provides the nurse with a broad orientation to the physical layout and visible conditions before she moves on to more interactive methods [1].

The timing in the scenario is deliberate: this occurs in her first week, before any interviews. That sequencing aligns with how windshield surveys are positioned in training programs—as an early, low-barrier introduction to community context that prepares the learner for deeper engagement later [1]. The nurse is not yet compiling a community profile because she lacks the demographic and health data that interviews and records review would provide. She is gathering the raw observational layer that will eventually feed into that profile.References (research sources)

- [1]Exploring Communities: Use of Windshield Surveys in Pediatric Residency Education.Research articleMonterrey AC, Omoruyi EA, Kelly NR, Pai S, Traba C, Gupta A. (2026) · DOI: 10.1177/00099228261463366

- [2]Genesee County REACH Windshield Tours: enhancing health professionals understanding of community conditions that influence infant mortality.Research articleKruger DJ, French-Turner T, Brownlee S (2013) · DOI: 10.1007/s10935-013-0301-8

## 임상 시나리오

Windshield Survey EssentialsFirst-pass community observation before interviews
A windshield survey is a passive, systematic visual sweep of the community by foot or vehicle. The nurse observes housing construction, water sources, stores, and flood-prone areas without joining resident activities.

Use it as the first step in community assessment to build a visual inventory of physical and social conditions before collecting interview or demographic data.

CautionDo not confuse with participant observation, which requires joining community activities. A windshield survey keeps the nurse outside daily life as an observer only.

## 핵심 개념

- **Ocular (windshield) survey** — An informal first look in which the nurse moves through the community by foot or vehicle and observes housing, people, services, environment, and activity without joining resident activities.
- **Participant observation** — A method in which the nurse joins community activities such as assemblies, feeding programs, or clean-ups to learn from the inside.
- **Spot map** — A map showing households, landmarks, water sources, and cases within a community.
- **Community profile** — The compiled set of demographic, socioeconomic, environmental, and health data for a community.

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