| Course | D224 Global and Population Health |
|---|---|
| Task | Task 2 |
| Paper type | Population health intervention plan |
| Length | About 1,200 words, 4 pages |
| Format | APA 7 |
| School | Western Governors University (WGU) |
| Program | RN to BSN |
| Updated | September 2026 |
Free sample paper for D224 Task 2
Population Intervention Plan: Point-of-Care Blood Lead Testing at WIC Visits for Medicaid-Enrolled Toddlers in an Older Industrial City
Student Name
Leavitt School of Health, Western Governors University
D224: Global and Population Health, Task 2
Course Instructor
Month Day, Year
Population Intervention Plan: Point-of-Care Blood Lead Testing at WIC Visits for Medicaid-Enrolled Toddlers in an Older Industrial City
Community and Subpopulation at Risk
The community is a composite older industrial city of about 120,000 residents in the Great Lakes region. Just over half of its housing was built before 1950, when lead-based paint was in common use, and roughly one resident in four has an income under the poverty line. The subpopulation at risk is children aged 12 to 24 months who are enrolled in Medicaid and live in the city's four oldest neighborhoods, about 2,300 children at any given time. Most are Black or Hispanic, most live in rented housing, and many families move more than once a year.
Children in this group face the highest risk of lead exposure in the country. National survey data show that blood lead levels in young children fell by about 95% between the late 1970s and 2016, but that higher levels remain consistently associated with non-Hispanic Black race, lower family income and older housing (Egan et al., 2021). Lead harms a developing brain even at low levels, and there is no known safe blood lead level (Ruckart et al., 2021). Yet testing is uneven. In the city's composite health department data, only 41% of Medicaid-enrolled children in the four neighborhoods had a blood lead test recorded by their second birthday, even though federal Medicaid rules require testing at 12 and 24 months (Ruckart et al., 2021).
Proposed Evidence-Based Intervention
The proposed intervention is point-of-care blood lead testing offered to every child aged 12 to 30 months at the city's three WIC clinics, the federal nutrition program that serves pregnant women, infants and children under five. WIC is chosen because most families in the subpopulation already visit it every few months for food benefits, often more reliably than they attend well-child visits. A public health nurse at each clinic will perform a capillary fingerstick test with a point-of-care analyzer that gives a result in about three minutes. Results at or above 3.5 micrograms per deciliter, the current reference value, (Ruckart et al., 2021) will trigger a same-day confirmatory venous draw referral, a report to the state lead registry and a home visit by the health department's lead program within two weeks.
Every test result will be sent to the child's primary care provider and to the state immunization and lead registry, so the child is counted as tested and the provider does not repeat the test unnecessarily. Families will receive a short teaching session on sources of lead in older homes, handwashing, wet cleaning of window sills and foods high in iron and calcium, delivered in English, Spanish or Arabic depending on preference.
Delivery Method and Collaboration
The intervention will be delivered in person at WIC clinics by public health nurses, working alongside WIC nutrition staff who will identify eligible children at check-in. Four partners are needed. The city health department's childhood lead program will lead the project, employ the nurses and run the home visits. The WIC program will provide space, schedule testing alongside benefit appointments and include lead information in its nutrition education. The two largest pediatric practices serving Medicaid families will agree to accept results and complete confirmatory testing. The local Medicaid managed care plans will share lists of children with no recorded test so WIC staff can prioritize them, a form of data sharing that state-level analyses have linked to better testing performance when paired with clear metrics (Ruckart et al., 2022).
Funding Source
The main funding source will be the state health department's childhood lead poisoning prevention funds, supported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's childhood lead poisoning prevention cooperative agreement, which pays for nurse time and analyzers. Because blood lead testing is a covered Medicaid service for children, the health department will bill Medicaid managed care plans for each test, which offsets part of the cost of supplies. A local foundation that funds early childhood programs will be asked for a one-time grant of about $40,000 to purchase three analyzers and translate teaching materials.
Barriers and Strategies
Three barriers are likely. Parents may worry that a high result could bring eviction or a report about their landlord, especially renters in poor housing; nurses will explain that the aim is to protect the child and that the lead program works with landlords on repairs, and they will connect families to legal aid. Clinic flow may slow if testing adds time to WIC visits; the fingerstick will be done while families wait for benefits to load, and a nurse will be scheduled during the busiest clinic hours. Follow-up may be lost when families move; the plan will collect two phone numbers and a secondary contact for every child and use text reminders for confirmatory tests.
Measurable Outcome
The primary outcome is the proportion of Medicaid-enrolled children in the four neighborhoods with at least one blood lead test recorded by 24 months of age, measured quarterly from the state registry. The target is to raise this rate from 41% to 65% within 18 months of launch. Two secondary measures will be tracked: the proportion of children with a capillary result at or above 3.5 micrograms per deciliter who receive a confirmatory venous test within 30 days, with a target of 85%, and the proportion of confirmed cases that receive a home environmental visit within two weeks, with a target of 90%.
Global Health Connection
Lead exposure is a global problem as well as a local one. The World Health Organization identifies lead as a chemical of major public health concern and notes that no level of exposure is known to be without harmful effects, with the heaviest burden falling on children in low- and middle-income countries exposed through paint, recycling of batteries, contaminated spices and cookware (World Health Organization [WHO], 2024). The same principle applies in this city and abroad: find exposed children early and remove the source. Reducing illness from hazardous chemicals is also part of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal for good health and well-being, which gives local work like this a place in a worldwide effort. Lead found in cinnamon used in applesauce pouches sold to American children in 2023 is a reminder that exposure crosses borders through global supply chains (Troeschel et al., 2025), and families in this community who buy spices from overseas markets will receive specific teaching about that source.
Conclusion
Children aged 1 and 2 in the city's oldest neighborhoods are at the highest risk of lead exposure and the least likely to be tested. Bringing point-of-care testing to WIC, a program these families already trust and visit, with clear links to confirmatory testing, home visits and primary care, offers a practical way to find exposed children earlier. With stable funding, strong partners and a clear measure, the plan can show within 18 months whether it closes the testing gap.
References
Egan, K. B., Cornwell, C. R., Courtney, J. G., & Ettinger, A. S. (2021). Blood lead levels in U.S. children ages 1-11 years, 1976-2016. Environmental Health Perspectives, 129(3), 037003. https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP7932
Ruckart, P. Z., Bove, F. J., & Dallas, C. (2022). Evaluating the effectiveness of state-level policies on childhood blood lead testing rates. Journal of Public Health Management and Practice, 29(2), 241-249. https://doi.org/10.1097/PHH.0000000000001623
Ruckart, P. Z., Jones, R. L., Courtney, J. G., LeBlanc, T. T., Jackson, W., Karwowski, M. P., Cheng, P.-Y., Allwood, P., Svendsen, E. R., & Breysse, P. N. (2021). Update of the blood lead reference value: United States, 2021. MMWR: Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, 70(43), 1509-1512. https://doi.org/10.15585/mmwr.mm7043a4
Troeschel, A. N., Buser, M. C., Winquist, A., Ruckart, P., Yeh, M., Kuai, D., Chang, A., Pennington, A. F., Rumph, J. T., Smith, M. R., Lara, M. V., Cataldo, N., Lewis, K., Arnold, K., Harris, S., Nicholas, D. C., Hughes, M., Wortmann, T., Norman, E., . . . Daniel, J. (2025). Investigation of lead and chromium exposure after consumption of contaminated cinnamon-containing applesauce: United States, November 2023-April 2024. MMWR: Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, 74(14), 239-244. https://doi.org/10.15585/mmwr.mm7414a2
World Health Organization. (2024). Lead poisoning [Fact sheet]. https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/lead-poisoning-and-health
What the D224 Task 2 instructions ask
The second D224 task asks you to plan a population health intervention. Most versions ask you to identify a community and a subpopulation at risk, propose an evidence-based intervention, describe how it will be delivered and who will collaborate, identify a funding source, anticipate barriers with strategies, define a measurable outcome and connect the issue to global health. The community can be real or composite but should be described with realistic data. The evaluator looks for alignment: the intervention should fit the subpopulation's risk, the delivery should reach that group and the outcome should measure the change the intervention is meant to produce.
How this D224 Task 2 example is built
The plan begins with the community's housing age and poverty and narrows to the toddlers at greatest risk. The intervention is described in operational detail, including age range, test type and clinic sites, and is supported by evidence on point-of-care testing and testing gaps. Delivery and collaboration name the nurses, WIC staff and health department roles. Funding is tied to specific state and federal lead programs. Each barrier has a matched strategy, such as explaining that results do not trigger eviction. The outcome is a testing rate measured quarterly from registry data, and the global section places local lead exposure within the World Health Organization's view of lead as a major concern. Because each section answers one prompt in order, an evaluator can match the plan against the rubric line by line without searching for any element.
Where the D224 Task 2 rubric puts the marks
D224 Task 2 is rated aspect by aspect as competent, approaching competence or not evident. The population aspect checks that the community and at-risk subpopulation are defined with data. The intervention aspect wants an evidence-based approach suited to that group. Delivery and collaboration aspects look for how the intervention reaches people and who is involved. Funding, barrier and outcome aspects each ask for specific, realistic answers. The global health aspect wants a clear connection between the local issue and its global context. Evaluators check sources for credibility and currency and expect APA citations and professional writing throughout.
D224 Task 2 help: what sends it back
A population drawn too broadly is the usual reason this plan is returned. Children in the city is a population; Medicaid-enrolled toddlers in the four oldest neighborhoods is a subpopulation you can plan for. Second, interventions are often not evidence-based. Cite research showing the approach works or fills a known gap. Third, funding sources are vague, such as grants. Name the program or agency. Fourth, outcomes are unmeasurable. Define the indicator, the data source and the time frame. Finally, the global health connection is frequently an afterthought. Show how the same problem appears elsewhere and what global organizations recommend, so the connection adds something to the plan.
Get a D224 Task 2 example written to your instructions
Send the Task 2 instructions and rubric from your D224 course of study, along with the population and health problem the plan has to address. We write a custom example against those aspects, with every rate carrying its denominator and the intervention described operationally, and return it in 24-48h. The first custom sample is free.
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D224 Task 2 questions, answered
Where should the population data come from?
Public health surveillance and government statistics rather than news coverage. County and state health department reports, national survey data and federal agency datasets carry denominators and dates, which is exactly what the aspects need. Cite the year of the data, and say plainly when the most recent figure available is older than you would like, since an evaluator reads honesty about currency as competence.
How narrow should the population be?
Narrow enough that one intervention could reach it. A whole county is often too broad for a single delivery plan, while a named age band inside a defined service area, or the patients attending one type of site, gives you something you can fund, staff and measure. Whatever you choose, keep it identical from the data passage through to the outcome measure.
Are clinical or community hours part of this?
Where your version requires field work, community contact or documented hours, that portion is yours alone. We do not arrange, attend, or produce records for anything involving real people or real sites. The written plan is what a worked example covers, made against the instructions and rubric you provide, and any record of hours stays entirely with you.
What makes a good subpopulation for D224 Task 2?
A group defined by age, place and risk that your intervention can reach, supported by data showing why they are at risk. The sample focuses on Medicaid-enrolled toddlers in pre-1950 housing.
Where can I find a free D224 Task 2 sample paper?
The full population intervention plan is published above with notes beside each section. For a plan on your own community, send the D224 instructions and your first custom plan is free.