Community Health Nursing Assessment
Western Governors University

Community Health Nursing Assessment

A1. Community Description
Hernando County is located in west central Florida. The county was officially established on February 27, 1843. It was created from portions of Alachua, Hillsborough and Orange Counties and centered between Citrus County to the north and Pasco County to the south. Its county seat is Brooksville and its largest community is unincorporated Spring Hill. According to “Hernando County History” 2010, the county has a total area of 589.08 square miles, of which 478.31 square miles is land and 110.77 square miles is water. Hernando County
According to Well Florida (2006), nearly twenty-two percent of Hernando County residents (age 25 and older) have no high school diploma, whereas 40 percent with high school diplomas, eighteen percent have acquired a college degree, and the drop-out rates were higher compared to other counties.

Access to Healthcare According to (Florida CHARTS: Community Health Assessment Resource Tools Set, n.d.). In 2009, there were nearly eighteen thousand non-elderly uninsured residents, and 18,200 were Medicaid eligible. Prescribed drugs comprised nearly twenty-one percent of Medicaid expenditures, there were 247.2 HMO enrollees per 100,000 of the population, and avoidable hospitalizations in the county were twenty-two percent of the population. Residents of Hernando have access to healthcare through various medical personnel and facilities. The County has 206.5 licensed medical doctors, 22 dentists, and 2,565 licensed nurses. There are 210 licensed healthcare facilities which includes four hospitals, seventeen assisted living facilities, five skilled nursing facilities, twenty-one adult family care homes, and one crisis stabilization unit. In conducting this access to healthcare it was discovered that many families of low-income and no-income suffered from one are more