Discussion response

As many of us know, not everyone learns the same. Each day we teach our patients about new medications, their plan of care, ways to help prevent them from coming back in the hospital so often, etc. We want what is best for our patients and we cannot do that effectively if we are not educating them the right way. We could educate someone until we are blue in the face a certain way but if they cannot learn that way then we are wasting our time. We need to ask our patients how they like to learn so that when we are educating them, they understand it and are more willing to learn about what we have to teach them.

Thinking about the types of patients that I take care of, the humanistic theory stands out to me. It helps the individual patient develop their self-directing care in a holistic manner (Nies & McEwen, 2014). Having that difficult patient, who is not compliant at home, refusing to take medications while in the hospital, refusing to take care of themselves is what comes to mind when I use this type of learning theory. Being upfront with these patients and letting them see the whole picture on what their future holds not only whips them into shape, but it helps them see that we just want to help them and that their lives do not have to be centered around their disease. Which brings me to my diagnosis of lung cancer that is prevalent in my community.

Patient that are diagnosed with lung cancer all of a sudden feel like their lives are centered on their diagnosis. Which it partly true but then again, the patient still needs to live on with their lives. In Allen County, Lung cancer is one of the largest cancer that is diagnosed in the late stages (Ohio Department of Health, 2017). Our cancer patients like the humanistic theory of learning because it gives them their life back, it teaches them to look at life as a whole.

When teaching the community about the risk factors of lung cancer, one strategy I would use is to bring in someone that is currently living with lung cancer. It would allow members of the community to see that you are not defined by a certain diagnosis. Next, I would teach them about ways to detect when the oil companies in my community are not doing what they are supposed to do. This would help the fumes coming from the factory from getting in contact with its workers. It would hopefully save them from a diagnosis of lung cancer later in life.

There are multiple ways for us as nurses to teach our patients. Each patient we come in contact with learns different from the next. We need to be mindful on how our patients like to learn and attend to those needs. We also need to teach our communities ways to help keep our community clean and keep away all of the diseases that we can.

References

Ohio Department of Health. (2017). Allen County Cancer Profile. Retrieved January 30, 2018, from https://www.odh.ohio.gov/-/media/ODH/ASSETS/Files/…

Discussion 2

Education has been important in nursing since Florence Nightingale made it a part of her work (Nies & McEwen, 2015). Community health nursing emphasizes the nurse’s role for promoting health, prevention, and achieving well-being within the community (Nies & McEwen, 2015). Health education is utilized by community nurses to assist people in adopting health behaviors (Nies & McEwen, 2015). In this posting, I will discuss the social learning theory and how it applies to health education. I will discuss health education strategies that can be used to educate a small group of mothers with the objective of decreasing the infant mortality rates.

One problem I have identified in my area is high infant mortality rate at 7.2 per 100,000 births (Ohio Department of Health, 2018). The high infant mortality rate may be associated with the high percentage of mothers who do not receive prenatal care in the first trimester (Clermont County Health District, 2018). To educate the public about decreasing the infant mortality rate in my area, I would facilitate a small group learning environment of expectant mothers. I would utilize the social learning theory technique so that I can assess what affect social factors have on learning (Bastable, 2014). The social learning theory takes in consideration how learners are perceiving information and responding to social situations (Bastable, 2014). I think using the social learning theory will be effective when teaching expectant mothers about infant mortality because it allows the nurse educator to assess what social factors will affect the risk of infant mortality with expectant mothers. Two principle strategies I would use to educate expectant mothers are: empowerment and principle of relevancy (Nies & McEwen, 2015). By empowering expectant mothers, there would be open dialogue with families and the nurse educator to problem solve and identify solutions to decrease infant mortality (Nies & McEwen, 2015). By using the principle of relevancy, the nurse educator can discuss the issues affecting the community and the importance of the topic and why education is needed (Nies & McEwen, 2015). Both teaching techniques allow the community to be involved in the education process and will help with retaining of information.

The high rate of infant mortality is a problem I have identified in my area. To decrease the incidence of infant mortality, education of expectant mothers is crucial. Using the social learning theory is effective in educating expectant mothers about infant mortality and prevention. The community health nurse’s role in community education is crucial to getting information to the community.

References

Bastable, S. (2014). Nurse as educator: Principles of teaching and learning for nursing practice (4^th ed.). Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning.

Clermont County Health District. (2018). retrieved from: www.clermonthealthdistrict.org

Nies, M., & McEwen, M. (2015). Community public/health nursing: Promoting the health of populations (6^th ed.). St. Louis, MO: Elsevier.

Ohio Department of Health. (2018). retrieved from: www.odh.gov