Teaching the Community on Control and the Prevention of Diabetes - Essay Example

Community Teaching Plan Affiliation Summary of a teaching plan Topic: Teaching the community on control and the prevention of diabetes Time: 0500hrs Venue: House of God Church in Miami Dade County Target group: African Americans of different ages who are the attendants of this church Teacher: Patrice Maddan, RN Content Objectives Materials remarks 5 minutes Introduction Define diabetes Epidemiological rationale 1) 1. A family history of diabetes. If a parent or sibling in your family has diabetes, your risk of developing type 2 diabetes increases. 2) Age over 45. The chance of getting type 2 diabetes increases with age. 3) Race or ethnic background. The risk of type 2 diabetes is greater in Hispanics, African-Americans, Native Americans, and Asians. 4) Metabolic syndrome (also called insulin resistance syndrome). 5) Being overweight. If you are overweight, defined as a body mass index (BMI) greater than 25, youre at higher risk of type 2 diabetes. Also, fat around the waistline as opposed to fat in the buttocks and legs is a risk factor. 6) Hypertension. High blood pressure increases the risk of developing type 2 diabetes. 7) Abnormal lipid levels. HDL ("good") cholesterol levels under 35 mg/dL (milligrams per deciliter) and/or a triglyceride level over 250 mg/dL increases your risk of type 2 diabetes. 8) The community members should be able: To understand the term diabetes mellitus To state the risk factors of diabetes mellitus Hand-outs, Pamphlets 20 minutes Discussion Signs and symptoms Extreme thirst 9) • Unexplained weight loss 10) • Frequent urination 11) • Blurred vision • Excessive hunger Prevention Eat a healthy balanced diet •Exercising regularly •Limiting sugar intake •Regularly monitoring blood glucose levels and administering insulin as needed. To identify signs and symptoms of Diabetes To state preventive measures of diabetes Hand-outs, Pamphlets, Blood glucose monitor, alcohol wipes, lancets, blood glucose strips, gauze, biohazard container. . Pamphlet will give examples on how to maintain and live with type 2 diabetes. The target aggregate audience will be able to successfully mention how to live with diabetes 5 minutes Conclusion summary evaluation To answer questions that arises To provide a summary of diabetes management Diabetes Mellitus Introduction Diabetes mellitus is a chronic condition that usually affects the ability of the body to utilise glucose. The most-common one is type two diabetes mellitus that consist of several dysfunctions characterized by elevated glucose level in the blood resulting from resistance to insulin action, excessive glucagon secretion or inadequate insulin secretion from the pancreas (Drouin et al., 2013 P.68). Epidemiological rationale As at the year 2010, an estimated population of around 285 million people had diabetes globally, with the type 2 making the larger percentage of the group of up to 90% of the cases. According to the international diabetes federation, an estimation of about 381 million people globally had diabetes in 2013; the statistics show that there is a constant increase of diabetes prevalence globally. In the United States of America, there is a substantial increase of diabetes, as at 2010 approximately 26 million people had diabetes of which around seven million people were undiagnosed. According to America Diabetes Association, approximately 8.6 million Americans aged above 60 have diabetes, and the disease slowly encroaching even to the younger generation. Diabetes is, therefore, increasing concern in the community, with various studies showing constant increase in type II diabetes mellitus as well as its associated risk factors like; obesity, cardiovascular disease, etc(Fox, 2010, P. 88). Some factors can predispose a person to have diabetes, and striking characteristic is the family history. An individual who comes from a family where their familial generation have been suffering from diabetes mellitus, this can mean that there is a gene linked to the development of diabetes among people in that genealogical family. Members of some ethnic group like the African American, who is overweight have been rated to have high chances of getting diabetes mellitus. The places where the African American resides have been associated to have an impact in predisposing them to diabetes mellitus. It has been related to some factors like; poor quality health care, social and some cultural factors and the overall genetic makeup of the African American people leads them to the increased prevalence of diabetes. Moreover, it is believed that education level of an individual plays a role in predisposing one to diabetes, in that, the higher the education level, the less prevalence to diabetes mellitus. Probably, this may be due an increased knowledge of signs and symptoms of diabetes mellitus among the elite and the educated group. That is why most African American has a high prevalence than their Non-Hispanic and white counterparts. Evaluation of teaching experience The teaching experience got at the house of God church in Miami Dade County can be described as far much successful, as the target groups who were members of the community that participated in the program were members of this church. The participants were 603 members most of them being adults aged above 60 years and youths aged 16 years and above indeed they were very eager to learn, and this was enhanced by type of data that they were provided with on the prevalence of diabetes in the region and globally. The group came to realise that they were as well exposed and were at risk in getting diabetes at a single given time. It was perhaps because of the risk factors that they were all exposed to in the community. They were interested in getting the information on how to manage those individuals, who had the disease, and prevention of the disease was a key interest to the entire cohort that made them feel excited to learn, and they stay healthy throughout their lives. The learning theories used were well-put into the entire time of teaching. The theories helped in making the whole teaching process much easier. Constructivism theory was much-employed because it made the whole group get involved in the learning process as they make a constructive contribution and making learning more interactive than a lecture. Since many of the individuals had no idea of diabetes, it was, therefore, important to keep on repeating some points that were important to remember. Such included the major signs and symptoms of diabetes type 2, that were emphasised since they were the backbone of letting the group assess themselves or their significant others who may at one point have had such symptoms. It was quite impressive that the majority of people noted that they have some of the symptoms and were not aware that they were related to diabetes mellitus; this showed how majority of people are suffering or are in pre-diabetic stage and are not aware. Methods of teaching were well employed, and they did provide a proper channel of conveying the intended information. Lecture and discussion method were mostly used as these two methods bring an inclusive learning experience(Vaughn & Baker, 2001, P.613). The community members were giving case scenarios that they see amongst themselves, and we discussed them to relate them to the topic. It was very interesting to see that they had already mastered the subject contents and was able to relate with the real life scenarios. The questioning method helped in clarification of some issues that the learners were did not understand well thus it provided an array of wide exploration of the topic and ensured that the learners understand the management of diabetes to in-depth level. Audio and visual methods used helped to enhance learning, the pamphlets and the video projected made learning real and many learners appreciated it since it made them see the effects and management of diabetes mellitus. As the lesson ended there was individual and group evaluation, the learners were divided into different groups consisting of three people per group and each group was given different sub-topic to summarise and present as other groups evaluate the presenters. Another evaluation was done by issuing some questionnaires to be filled by the learners. The questionnaires contained questions from what was discussed during the lesson, and this was important as it was the only way to evaluate if the set objectives were met wholly or passively. The questionnaires were later marked and feedback given to the learners. It is important that most of the learners scored above 70% with an overall mean coming to 65%. This showed that learning took place to a higher level and majority of the community members understood how to manage and prevent diabetes mellitus. Community response to teaching A chance was given for some community members to provide feedback on the overall status of teaching and information that they learnt. The feedback was astonishing since most of them gave a positive compliment on the topic; they stated to have learnt a lot of new things regarding diabetes and their health and were impressed on the learning how to prevent the chronic disease from occurring. Most of them encouraged that there should be such health talks almost monthly on different topics as they get vital information that help them prevent many diseases and make them stay healthy. However, one community member was concerned on the use of some language that was technical to understand in the pamphlet issued. It was one major barrier while passing some information because not all the participants were able to understand pure English and perhaps some medical jargons, however at any given time a medical term was used proper explanation was employed to bring everybody on board. It worked for most of the learners but as usual some slow learners were not able to immediately comprehend and understand the topic fully. Areas of Strength and Areas of Improvement The areas of strength in the teaching experience was the mastery of the subject, I had fully read all types of diabetes and concentrated on diabetes type 2. It provided a full mastery of the subject and provided me with an array of information regarding the presentation and management of diabetes. Preparation prior to teaching adds confidence in an individual as it makes one teach without fear of any question from the learning group. It makes the teacher provide information in a stepwise manner thus making the learners understand the subject by building from simple to complex or from known to unknown. The areas of improving are to employ several skills of communication mostly non-verbal communication and change of voice tone. It was quite evident that I employed few non-verbal communications to the audience, for example change of facial expression and some body movements. My voice fairly flat throughout, yet changing of tone in the voice is very imperative in teaching as it leads to the emphasis’s of some points and eliminates monotony in the voice that may lead to audience getting bored and sleeping. Conclusion Learning is a process that leads to acquisition of information and putting them into practice. For learning to take place, the recipients should be ready to learn without coercion as this provides the zeal and eager to know something new from the teacher. A teacher should always have prepared himself before going to teach as this increases confidence and improves learning. Any learning should have objectives to be met and after the learning process a due evaluation is done to check if the learners learnt something References Drouin, P., Blickle, J. F., Charbonnel, B., Eschwege, E., Guillausseau, P. J., Plouin, P. F., … American Diabetes Association. (2013). Diagnosis and classification of diabetes mellitus. Diabetes Care, 36 Suppl 1, S67–74. Fox, C. S. (2010). Cardiovascular Disease Risk Factors, Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus, and the Framingham Heart Study. Trends in Cardiovascular Medicine. Vaughn, L., & Baker, R. (2001). Teaching in the medical setting: balancing teaching styles, learning styles and teaching methods. Medical Teacher, 23, 610–612. Read More