HNA Assignment outline
- An essay to explore and demonstrate understanding of the key theoretical themes used to assess health needs and an explanation of practical approach(es) used in a specific Health Needs Assessment, including a discussion of their strengths, weaknesses & appropriateness
- 1500 words in length
Guidelines
- In your assignment you will be expected to demonstrate:
– An understanding of the concepts and theories underpinning health needs assessment
– An awareness of the different approaches that may be taken to undertaking health needs assessment projects
– The ability to critically review an existing health needs assessment report, particularly in terms of assessing its strengths and weaknesses in relation to the purpose for which it was undertaken
– Appropriate academic skills
Possible Structure
- 200 words – Introduction
- 350 words – An understanding of the concepts and theories underpinning health needs assessment • 350 words – An awareness of the different approaches that may be taken to undertaking health needs assessment projects
- 350 words – The ability to critically review an existing health needs assessment report, particularly in terms of assessing its strengths and weaknesses in relation to the purpose for which it was undertaken.
- 250 words – Conclusion
An understanding of the concepts and theories underpinning health needs assessment.
- Here you may want to discuss the different types of needs and how these can be classified and measured. E.g. You may wish to make reference to the theories put forward by Maslow and Bradshaw. To demonstrate additional readying, you may wish to include information from Gough and Doyal. You may also want to provide examples from the content of the early lectures and / or the HNA document to demonstrate your ability to apply this knowledge.
An awareness of the different approaches that may be taken to undertaking health needs assessment projects
- For this section you may wish to discuss the different approaches to HNA that could be utilised and their suitability to different situation. It would be useful if you provided examples to demonstrate the points that you are making and not all of these will need to come from your HNA document. By doing this you will be able to add to your reference list and demonstrate your wider reading around the subject.
The ability to critically review an existing health needs assessment report, particularly in terms of assessing its strengths and weaknesses in relation to the purpose for which it was undertaken.
- Here you may wish to use the theories and information that you have presented above to be critical about the HNA document that you have chosen. Analyse the suitability of the approaches used in this situation, could a different approach have yielded different results, and would these have been more or less useful?
- Consider what needs have been highlighted and what needs may have been overlooked. How have these been measured and could the use of different measurement tools resulted in different outcomes. What are the strengths and weaknesses of these methods and therefore of this document? Demonstrate the ability to support and analyse information from published sources
- Remember at all times you will need to be considering the suitability of methods on relation to your document and providing specific examples will help you to do this.
Things to remember
- Reference all your sources – Including the health needs assessment document you are using.
- Minimum of 10 References
Type of assessment: Essay
Students will be required to review a health needs assessment report, from a selection set by the module leader. The health needs assessment selected must be cited and referenced appropriately in your essay. This essay should be no more than 1500 words in length.
In your assignment, you will be expected to demonstrate
- An understanding of the concepts and theories underpinning health needs assessment (Maximum 30 marks)
- An awareness of the different approaches that may be taken to undertaking health needs assessment projects (Maximum 30 marks)
- The ability to critically review an existing health needs assessment report, particularly in terms of assessing its strengths and weaknesses in relation to the purpose for which it was undertaken. (Maximum 40 marks)
SUGGESTED READING LIST
Public Health Skills BY Coles L and Porter E 2008
Essential Public Health (Third edition) BY Donaldson L J & Donaldson R J 2009
Health Needs Assessment workbook BY Hooper J and Longworth P 2002
Putting Analysis into Assessment BY Dalzell R & Sawyer E 2011
A theory of Human Need BY Doyal L & Gough I 1991
Health Needs Assessment in Practice BY Wright J 1998
Your work must be:-
- Word processed / typed
- Size 12 plain font (e.g., Calibri)
- Double line spaced throughout
- Margin width of at least 25mm (1 inch) each side
- Page numbered (e.g., Page 1 of 10, Page 2 of 10, Page 3 of 10 etc.)
- Page breaks where necessary
- Spell checked and proofread
- Paragraph style should be consistent
- Either one blank line space (only) with no indentation on the first line of the paragraph, or
- No space between paragraphs and indent on first line
- Reference list – double line spacing (normally hanging indent)
- Appendices – double line spacing if possible
- Your assignment length/word count (includes all written text apart from figures & tables; reference list; appendices & title page) should be at the beginning of your coursework
Your work must also have a title page, which includes your student number, name of the module, module code and module coordinator’s name.
