The Community under Discussion is Dallas, Texas
Planning Before Teaching:
Epidemiological Rationale for Topic
Most health programs claim that prevention is always better than cure. This is a justified statement considering the argument that a lot of resources are lost in attempt to cure an already established disease in an individual with the mention of the associated risk of losing lives. According to the files of patient taken from two teaching clinics in United States, people die due to neglect to the educational teachings and recommendations that they are given in relation to health and safety. Most research conducted in Dallas, Texas reveal that a large number of individuals suffering from chronic diseases are informed of the causes of such health complications, but due to ignorance, they get infected. Diseases such as cancer are very common in the region due to high rate of smoking among the resident and subjection to other illicit drugs that lead to such and related diseases (Lauren, 2011).
There is therefore a great need to foster primary preventions to areas we live to reduce the chances or the likelihood of being affected by some diseases that could be prevented and controlled before they attack. This lesson therefore covers the importance of primary prevention, the need for health promotion and the ways that can be used to promote health in workplaces, learning institutions and residential areas.
Nursing Diagnosis
Chronic diseases are deadly diseases that if not looked upon immediately they are realized lead to death. Most of them are considered to be incurable and the drugs used to treat or manage such diseases are very expensive. Some of the diseases categorized as chronic complications include cancer, heart attacks, kidney failure and cancer detected on the respiratory track.
These are some of the diseases that have been diagnosed in the region, and the only solutions that the nurses give to the affected and the infected is to promote educational programs that advocate for reduction of the use of causing agents of such diseases like smoking. Apart from the nursing diagnosis, medical researches reveal the same information about chronic diseases in Dallas and great emphasis is laid upon the residents to be very courteous to prevent further deaths that could otherwise be controlled.
Readiness for Learning
Factors that would indicate the readiness to learn for the target aggregate:
- Students actively participating in answering of simple questions forwarded by the teacher
- The sitting posture of the students, when the students are uprightly sited is an indication that they want and are ready to learn the topic under discussion.
- Students asking probing questions to know much about the issues being investigated or discussed trigger the teacher to have the willingness to deliver much better than one had initially prepared.
- The facial expression also determines whether the targeted group is ready to learn or not. For instance, a gloomy, sleepy and less jovial faces illustrate the unwillingness of the learners to participate in the discussion or lesson. On the other hand, if the students are jovial and anticipating or curious, it is an illustration that the learners are ready and interested to know much about the concept being investigated.
- The concentration and mediation of the students also show their readiness to learn new things. If the learner react curiously upon the mention of the need of primary prevention and health promotion, then this shows how actively they ready for the lesson.
Learning Theory to Be Utilized
Being a health related lesson, I would prefer to use Group Discussion Learning Approach to administer to the learners. This is the most appropriate theory to apply since it encourages total participation of the learners and this leads to better understanding as the participants are able to get diverse thoughts supporting the same concept or idea. Discussions encourage liveliness and capture the attention and interests of the learners, and this contributes greatly to effective learning not only in health related subjects but also in other social subjects.
Goal
The objective to be applied is associated with primary prevention and health promotion which is in line with the Healthy People 2020 (HP2020) objective(s) and goals, in the sense that by the end of the learning lesson, the learners should be able to:
- Identify the advantages of primary prevention and health promotion in an urban center, with Dallas being the point of reference.
- Identify at least eight ways of promoting health in urban and highly populated regions.
- Explain the ways of promoting health giving appropriate examples.
- Describe the appropriate ways of educating people on the importance of creating a healthy environment.
How This HP2020 Objective Relate to Alma Ata’s Health for All Global Initiatives
The fact that Alma Ata’s Health for All Global Initiative aims at promoting health and creating a health environment in workplaces, learning institutions and residential areas suffices to show that the objectives under discussion are closely related and by the end of the learning process, learners should be at a position to comprehend with the relationship (Dehmer Popma, van den Berg, 1988).
Behavioral Objectives (Including Domains), Content, and Strategies/Methods (Midgley, Matthew, Greenwood, & Logan, 2009)
Creativity
Application of discussion groups can be considered to be an effective approach of impacting students with scientific knowledge and skills. Some of the issues I did to ensure that students achieve the goals and objectives of the lessons are such as:
- Involving all the students in the discussion
- Selecting a leader in each group and interchanging them to impact leadership skills to all.
- Encouraging individual contributions in the groups
- Making an over-all cover-up after the end of the lesson
- Monitoring the progress of each group and comparing their contributions with other groups before making conclusions.
Planned Evaluation of Objectives
1). Ensure that the learners are able to identify the advantages of primary prevention and health promotion in an urban center, with Dallas being the point of reference. I will ask each student to write them and move round checking them randomly before judging on whether they have got the concept or not.
2). Identify at least eight ways of promoting health in urban and highly populated regions. This can be achieved by asking students to name them randomly, one at a time.
3). Explain the ways of promoting health giving appropriate examples, and this can be achieved by asking each students to give an example irrespective of the area where it applies.
4). Describe the appropriate ways of educating people on the importance of creating a healthy environment. In ensuring that I achieve this, I will set a quiz to test their understanding.
- Planned Evaluation of Goal
- After the teaching session, I would suggest a date when I will subject continuous assessment test to test their understanding of the whole topic of primary prevention and health promotion. This will enable me to grade and describe my effectiveness of teaching and the effectiveness of the students in understanding, mastering and retaining concepts (Ascherio, Rimm, Stampfer, Giovannucci & Willett, 1995).
- Planned Evaluation of Lesson and Teacher
- After subjecting a test to the students, I would use the measurements or results in detecting the failures I made as a teacher so that I may improve them, identify some of my strengths that I may sustain them and know whether the teaching styles or approaches used were effective. This includes rectifying my lesson plan among other teaching tools and resources necessary for such or related class.
- Barriers
- Major barrier that might have occurred was loss of attention of the learners with consideration of the fact that the community under discussion might not be familiar to all students. This can be controlled by ensuring that the selection of community or regions to be investigation is made by the students depending on their familiarity to the areas.
- Communication
- During the presentation, I will use (English) which is well understood by all respondents and ensure it is as simple as possible to favor those whose English is not their native language. The entry behavior should be polite and interesting to attract the attention of the learner. The conclusive approach also must be appropriate so as students are able to digest what has been taught effectively (Griffith, Guyatt, Cook, Bucher, & Cook, 2009).
- References
Ascherio, A., Rimm, E. B, Stampfer, M. J, Giovannucci, E. L. & Willett, W. C. (1995). Dietary intake of marine n-3 fatty acids, fish intake, and the risk of coronary disease among men. N Engl J Med. 332(15):977– 82.
Dehmer G. J., Popma, J. J., van den Berg, E. K, et al. (1988). Reduction in the rate of early restenosis after coronary angioplasty by a diet supplemented with n-3 fatty acids.
Griffith, L. E, Guyatt, G. H., Cook, R. J, Bucher, H. C. & Cook, D. J. (2009). The influence of dietary and nondietary calcium supplementation on blood pressure: an updated metaanalysis of randomized controlled trials. Am J Hypertens. 12(1):84 – 92.
Lauren, L. (2011). Ways to Promote Wellness in the Workplace. Retrieved on 12th February 2013 from: http://www.inc.com/guides/2011/01/8-ways-to-promote-wellness-in-the-workplace.html
Midgley, J. P., Matthew, A. G., Greenwood, C. M. & Logan, A. G. (2009). Effect of reduced dietary sodium on blood pressure: a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. JAMA. 275(20):1590–7.
