Personal and Population Stress Management Plan (PSMP)
In this plan, the target population will be elderly men and women who are aging sixty-five years and above. With the increased population in the society, there is a need to ensure the elderly live satisfying and comfortable lives in their final phase in this life. In order to assist them address these issues, I found that this group will require published magazines that can provide them with information on how to live healthy lifestyles in their old age. These magazines are published by individuals or groups and provide information on the right types of food, clothing, physical exercises and advices on other health care issues that affect the elderly.
Assessing information need
In order to assess the information need of this group, I conducted a survey where I visited several old people in their homes to interview them about their current experiences and what they would like to see addressed in their lives.
Skills/questions needed
Some of the questions that I asked to identify valid information resources are the level of education of the author, their areas of specialization and experience in the topics they were addressing. I also enquired whether the magazines are peer-reviewed or not in order to assess their authenticity.
Method to check/critique resources
In order to check and criticize the resources that I found, I read the content to assess whether it is relevant to the elderly. I also checked the year of publication to ensure they were updated and carried latest information on matters of interest to the elderly.
Skills already in use
The first skill I am already using to choose, assess and evaluate resources is content which involves choosing a given material because of information it is providing to the target group. Only those resources that have relevant content to the elderly lifestyle were selected. Those materials that did not contain useful information to them were left out. The second skill that is already in use is structure/organization of a given resource. Many elderly are not so much interested in reading and they will be bored if the information is not broken into small chunks. Therefore, I used the skill to choose those magazines that were using subtitles, headings, action phrase or questions to direct the reader.
New skills learnt
I have the skills for choosing resources according to their design or appeal to the readers. This include choosing those documents that have attractive text design, appeal colors and pictures that will caught the attention of the reader (A Guide to Creating and Evaluating Patient Materials, 2010). This may also involves using images, charts and other drawings that are interesting to the reader. Secondly, I have learnt how to use cultural appropriateness and sensitivity when selecting resources in order to ensure they are aligned with values, beliefs and needs of the target group. For example, I need to consider the socio-economic status, race, gender orientation and ability when identifying and evaluating the right resources.
Overall class performances
References
A Guide to Creating and Evaluating Patient Materials: Guidelines for Effective Print Communication (2010). Mainehealth, retrieved on April 18, 2015 from:http://www.mainehealth.org/workfiles/MH_LRC/MH_Print%20Guidelines_Intranet.pdf
