Running head: MASON COUNTY 1

Mason County
Kelsi Baron, Hillary Colbry, Aubry Hire, Cody Kryftka, Maria Licari, Stephanie Logan, Bree
Miller, Katelyn Parris, Mary Skryprec
Ferris State University

MASON COUNTY 2

Mason County
Many counties in Northern Michigan are small vacation communities where people travel
in the summer. Along the Lake Michigan coast lies a county that has highly ranked beaches, the
top rated state park in Michigan, and is a vacation destination for many. Yet, the permanent
residents have their own daily living struggles. These struggles include living in poverty and
having a lack of access to higher education.
The largest population of people of Mason County resides in Ludington. Other cities and
villages include: Scottville, Custer, Fountain and Free Soil. Mason County has a high level of
poverty especially in the 0-17 age bracket (District Health Department #10, 2013). West Shore
Community College is in Scottville and offers higher education up to associates degrees. Due to
the close proximity of the community college, many adults living in Mason County never receive
a Bachelor's degree. Children aged 0-17 in Mason County are living in poverty at a rate higher
than the Michigan average. Mason County is also above Michigans average in teen pregnancy,
incidence of smoking while pregnant, and Medicaid births (District Health Department #10,
2013). Programs such as Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), free lunch programs, and
Medicaid are being utilized with percentages higher than the Michigan average. Mason County
has less than average incidences of low birth weight infants, which can be attributed to the access
to women's health and WIC programs. The hospital located in Ludington participates in
Medicare and Medicaid, which has become a main means of payment for many residents.
However, the statistics show that there is a barrier in costs for health care. Mason County is
higher than the Michigan average when it comes to individuals who are uninsured, which
coincides with Mason County statistics showing there is lack of access to health care related to
costs (District Health Department #10, 2013). Within the hospital lies a state of the art womens
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center with top of the line screening (Spectrum Health, 2014). These resources cause the breast
cancer rate to be lower than other counties around the state. The median household income is
about $8,000 below the state average (District Health Department #10, 2013). The last statistic
that is considerably different from the state is the overweight percentage. Mason County is 23%
higher compared to the state of Michigan in being overweight. This could be due to the limited
education, poverty level, and an aging population.
The model that correlates with the difference between Mason County and Michigan is the
Betty Neumans System Model. This model explains that every person has unique
characteristics; thus, when stressors are added to their daily lives people adjust differently (Ume-
Nwagbo, DeWan & Lowry, 2006). People also adjust to the stressors by utilizing the resources
available to them. Considering Mason County does not have many gyms and limited sources of
healthy options for food, the residents are not provided the correct tools to live a healthy
lifestyle. Therefore, the people living in Mason have higher stressors and less education than the
state as a whole; this model helps to explain the overweight population.
Problem Statement
In order to create community health programs, nurses must first accurately define the
parameters of the problem (Muecke, 1984). The individuals of Mason County are at an
increased risk of becoming obese based on the overwhelming percentage of the overweight
population. This is related to the lack of education, limited fitness options, and availability of
food choices. The risk of becoming obese is demonstrated by the Mason County Health Profile
of 2013. It was found that Mason County falls significantly lower than the state average of
Michigan in the educational and health behaviors. These causative factors can be eliminated
through increased education in schools on healthy behaviors and food choices (Lobelo et al.,
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2013). Bringing the health problem to the attention of the community may prompt a desire for
better and healthier living and may increase the likelihood of fitness centers being built. Directly,
this will positively impact the way the community operates and how they make their choices.
Indirectly, it will allow Mason County to rise to the state average of health and have an improved
overall outlook.
Nursing Diagnosis
There are many factors that increase a population within a community to be at risk for
certain health disparities. The population of teenage mothers living in Mason County is at risk of
inadequate health care related to high usage of government funded programs during pregnancy.
This is demonstrated by 55.3% of the Mason pregnant mothers using Medicaid to pay for births,
compared to the Michigan average of 45.1% (District Health Department #10, 2013). Not only is
inadequate health care coverage a major health concern within this community, but also health
risks such as heart attacks. The population of Mason County is at an increased risk for heart
attacks related to the number of overweight individuals and a less than average median income in
Mason County. This is evidenced by the statistics collected from Mason County indicating that
overweight people are higher than average and median incomes are lower than average. The use
of assistance programs such as Free/Reduced Lunch and Medicaid Births are 10% more than the
state average, while WIC is used almost 15% more than the average (District Health Department
#10, 2013).
SMART Goal
An appropriate SMART goal includes specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and time,
related aspects in the goal (Zahorsky, 2014). Based on the information above, Mason County is
in need of a higher graduation rate at a baccalaureate or above degree level. This can be attained
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by the graduates of the high school moving on to a four year institution. Realistically, the
graduates can attain this goal by more encouragement from staff to pursue a four year degree,
financial aid information, and information about four year colleges in the form of college fairs.
These actions will improve the desire to go to a four year college. Within the next year or two,
offering college fairs for the high school students and including the staff on supporting measures
will start the implementation. Then in the next five years, graduates will be reevaluated to see if
there is an increase in baccalaureate degrees in the Mason County graduates.
Conclusion
The struggles of the people in Mason County can be resolved with proper tutelage. This
will directly impact the everyday lives of the individuals in the community. The poverty levels
will rise and teen pregnancies will fall due to the impact of additional educational efforts of the
youth of the county.




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References
District Health Department #10. (2013). Health profile chartbook 2013: Mason County.
In District Health Department #10. Retrieved from
http://dhd10.org/images/Mason_Chartbook_2013__Feb_18_2014.pdf
Lobelo, F., Garcia de Quevedo, I., Holub, C., Nagle, B., Arredondo, E., Barquera, S., & Elder, J.
(2013). School-based programs aimed at the prevention and treatment of obesity:
Evidence-based interventions for youth in Latin America. Journal of School
Health, 83(9), 668-677. doi:10.1111/josh.12080.
Muecke, M. A. (1984). Community health diagnosis in nursing. Public Health Nursing, 1(1), 23-
35. doi:10.1111/j.1525-1446.1984.tb00427.x
Spectrum Health. (2014). About Ludington hospital. In Spectrum Health. Retrieved from
http://www.spectrumhealth.org/about-ludington-hospital
Ume-Nwagbo, P. N., DeWan, S. A., & Lowry, L. W. (2006). Using the Newman systems model
for best practice. Nursing Science Quarterly, 19(1), 31-35.
doi:10.1177/0894318405284125
Zahorsky, D. (2014). The 5 steps to setting SMART business goals. About Money. Retrieved
from http://sbinformation.about.com/od/businessmanagemen1/a/businessgoals.htm