I did a community teaching at a community church; the lesson was designed to help children of primary school, aged between 6-11 years, understand primary prevention or health promotion on the prevention of diabetes type 2. The lesson was estimated to last for 40-55 minutes. In my plan, I will deal with primary health campaigns focusing on obesity in children, which causes diabetes, which lies under the nutrition and health status objective of the HP2020 world initiative.
According to CDC, the chances of diabetes are increasing in the USA; people with diabetes are more than 34 million, most of who have type 2. Type 2 diabetes attacks people above 45 years but is more in children, teens, and young adults, which led to our epidemiological concern due to the increasing trend in cases. The nursing diagnosis is taking too much food than the required amount, which leads to a gain of weight.
The young grown will compose themselves in terms of body feelings on measures to prevent diabetes and fatness and engage in conversations in readiness to learn. They will use body language, which will improve my confidence and verbalization to ensure reality testing to achieve a secondary course. I will identify habits that cause obesity at a different age and ensure they understand; they will have to explain what I have taught back in their own words; this will help me evaluate their understanding and emphasize where needed.
Diet and status of weight of a person involve intense research on the benefits of healthy foods. One of the goals of HP2020 is to increase the number of schools offering healthy and nutritious foods. These healthy foods will help schools not provide many calories and cholesterol and instead provide whole grains and fruits, which are beneficial. The goal of HP2020 recounts Alma Ata’s work and enlightens people on health problems and their avoidance through the intake of food and nutrition (The Lessons of Alma-Ata, 2018). HP2020 objective and Alma Ata advocate for a healthy diet, and the audience are encouraged on healthy foods to consume (From Health for All to Universal Health Coverage, 2018).
In developing behavioral objectives, the students will name a healthy choice in five food choices. They will be able to acknowledge the benefits of fruits and vegetables in their diet; they will be able to differentiate healthy and unhealthy food, promote physical exercises, and teach their parents the importance of the exercises. While teaching creativity was evident in creating a compassionate environment to eliminate fear, students’ ideas were considered, and the feedback encouraged self-assessment.
In evaluating the goal, I will identify the student’s diet to measure their eating behaviors. I will note good health by checking the medium weight. I will weigh the sample snack made from the food pyramid if it is healthy and if the criterion was realistic and timely.
To communicate therapeutically with the patients, I will create rapport with the audience. Devote listening will be noted on the way students will be answering questions, and to ensure active listening, I will be asking questions. I will conclude my story’s central theme and finally apply body contact in my presentation.
Diabetes is among the lifestyle conditions that the community is suffering from conflict hard to eradicate. It is a chronic health condition that occurs due to blood glucose metabolism being impaired due to insulin resistance, inadequate production of insulin, or excessive secretion of glucagon. It is the most common type of diabetes affecting mostly middle, old age individuals and obese children with around 29 million United States residents (Dansinger, 2020 December 06). It is mainly caused by a combination of factors including genetic predisposition from parents, and metabolism conditions like high cholesterol and triglycerides. The Most rampant cause is excess body weight or obesity, excess glucose production from the liver, poor cell-to-cell communication. For example, sending and receiving wrong signals or not retrieving signals at all, and breakage of beta cells by sending the wrong amount of insulin at the wrong time.
Risk factors include those above 45 years of age, family members or genes, and ethnic group where its more in Asian Americans, African Americans, etc. cardiac and blood vessel illnesses, obesity, depression, hypertension, excessive alcohol consumption, and smoking are among other major predisposing factors.
- Signs and symptoms
- Excessive urination, appetite, and thirst.
- Hazy vision
- Being testy
- Shivering or loss of sensation in your grasp or feet
- Weariness/feeling exhausted
- Wounds that don’t recuperate
- Repeating Yeast diseases
- Weight reduction easily
If diabetes isn’t appropriately treated, it can prompt hazardous conditions like demolishing dangers to heart and veins sicknesses, neuropathy, kidney disappointment, eye harm, slowly twisted mending, hearing weakness, skin conditions, rest apnea, and Alzheimer’s infection. Management can be achieved by making lifestyle changes like losing excess body weight, practicing healthy eating behaviors, participating in physical activities, and closely monitoring blood sugar levels. Adherence to prescribed medications as indicated is also important.
Community health workers play a major role in ensuring the health and safety of community members are maintained at the highest level possible. They ought to arrange a communal gathering to educate them on healthy behaviors that contribute to the prevention of diabetes. They should also plan for screening programs to check blood sugar levels mostly for old and obese individuals. They ought to bring to the community members understanding the importance of physical activities and offer them options on what activities to take part in. They do work together with the ministry of health, other professionals and the government to fund healthcare promotion programs.
I would evaluate my teaching experience through several methods. I could do that by asking a friend to observe me while teaching and assessing my expertise. In this case, I will choose a friend who is always very serious and can provide me with insights on the things I did wrong and where I need to change. Secondly, I can do so by videotaping myself during the lesson and use the video to evaluate myself on the things I need to change. I will use the knowledge I have on good teaching habits to evaluate my lesson and achieve the class’s purpose.
Thirdly, I can ask my friend to read my lesson plan after class to evaluate if I achieved the required objectives. Using a colleague, I will be assured that he or she will not favor me in their evaluation. During class, I can also decide to take notes of the lesson to evaluate later. I will take notes on the student’s behavior, their level of contribution in the class, their confidence, and their understanding level. Finally, I can evaluate the teaching experience by checking the tests and homework scores after a lesson. If the scores are excellent, then it means my teaching experience is good. However, suppose the students are not performing well. In that case, I have to evaluate my lesson plan, restructure my objectives, and ensure the students fully participate in class and obey my instructions.
Throughout the teaching, I encountered open-minded people in the community teaching who were willing to learn and change their behaviors. Having created a learning atmosphere, the interaction I had with the children worked positively. The children were actively involved in the presentation of the food pyramid. They consulted me on the food categories; they were not sure where they belong. Each student jokingly told me which food they had for lunch, and the rest would help identify the food groups each missed. The children asked how they would help their parents at home prepare food that is nutritious to avoid weight gain, and I offered to make a chart for each one of them.
The parents who participated in the community teaching helped me maintain the children’s discipline throughout the lesson. However, they were also actively involved in understanding which physical exercises were best for their children. They raised issues about specific activities that are risky for their children, such as riding. Therefore, I gave alternatives such as playing football which is less risky. The parents hence consulted with me on the necessary assets they can buy for their children depending on the activities they want to engage their children.
The students were uncomfortable with the new information I provided to them. They thought everyone who is obese among themselves had diabetes type 2. Therefore, I clarified that unless someone is screened, they were healthy but with a high risk of getting the disease. The audience responded to the questions I asked and asked for clarification, where they did not understand. For instance, they were asking if there are self-test kits for diabetes type 2. However, the primary concern of most parents was the food their children eat at school. I helped them determine how they would supplement it to be nutritious.
Overall, the lesson was lively, and participation and responses were excellent. The students scored high in the assessment, and the parents were thrilled because they had learned some new nutritional ideas. They promised to put what I taught into practice and asked for a follow-up lesson that I promised to organize.
In community teaching and community assessment, I discovered my potential strengths in some areas while I need improvements in other areas. In community teaching, I utilized my creativity to provide that made the children have no fear. To ensure the childrens’ self-assessment, I gave them appropriate feedback, which was unique for each child. In the community assessment, I interviewed a healthcare provider to understand the community better. The creativity level in both cases helped me achieve excellent results in both areas.
I am self-confident with the qualities to address people without fear; therefore, I helped me in both situations to get the relevant information I needed and pass the relevant knowledge. Self-discipline helped me work around my schedule without being late for the community teaching or the interview time. These personal strengths, combined with the knowledge I have acquired in class, helped me have an easy time working with the community, and I will work towards perfecting them.
However, I need to improve my non-verbal cues while doing community teaching and master appropriate sign language. These two areas were a challenge to me since I am not used to teaching, mainly where parents are involved. Fearlessly, I tried my best not to show these weaknesses in front of the parents and the pupils in community teaching. Moreover, my confidence helped me overcome the challenges quickly, and I tried my best to use sign language to help the children understand. In community assessment, I need to improve on a telephone interview; when I phoned the healthcare worker, I was a bit nervous at the start, but I regained myself as the conversation continued when I notice she was such a nice person and willing to give me any information I wanted.
Throughout my teaching and community assessment, I have learned a lot, which I think will be useful for the future of my career. Community teaching was an excellent experience working with small children and their parents. I learned how to handle children and their childish behavior; however, they are very adorable, and I can now spend any amount of time with a group of children. In the community assessment, I learned a lot from people, and the challenges communities are facing. I would like in the future to work in such an area and help people. The experience was incredible, and I look forward to working in the community.