Learners: Description
Educational lessons targeted at teaching how to overcome the burden of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) will include three types of learners, such as patients, family members, and the healthcare staff. The three-fold approach towards addressing this issue will result in more cohesive efforts for tackling the complications associated with COPD.
The role of the patient will be linked with self-management and implementing measures that he or she can do by him or herself to deal with the array of adverse health outcomes of COPD. The role of the family will be supporting the patient in his or her self-management as well as providing care in cases when the patient cannot. Lastly, the role of the staff in the context of elevating the burden of COPD will be associated with providing further education to the patient and his or her family members, assessing the state of the patient, and ensuring a smooth integration of treatment/intervention procedures targeted at improving the condition of the patient with COPD.
Educational Setting: Patient, Families, and Staff Education
Since the educational course will include three distinct types of audiences, the educational environment will also be divided into three settings: patient education, family education, and staff development. Through effective patient teaching, a health educator helps patients to develop and sustain a healthy lifestyle, active behaviors, and knowledge regarding when and how to seek medical help (Bauldoff, 2012). Without educating patients on how they can deal with the adverse effects of COPD, the treatment or intervention will not be as effective due to the lack of patient knowledge on how to maintain and promote their health by themselves.
It is also important to mention that patients with chronic diseases such as COPD will get an exclusive benefit from lessons because for them being informed about their condition and developing an effective plan, patients should be well educated. Moreover, patient education is needed for ensuring that the patient is motivated to follow the treatment plan, as it will directly affect the health outcomes. It is important to take into consideration such factors as learning readiness, patients’ learning environment, teaching methods, as well as the characteristics of the population to which the patient belongs.
With the increase of a number of adults with chronic illness, there is an increased need for involving family members in providing support for their care. Despite the fact that many health providers and policymakers are interested in creating a cohesive program for involving family members in the process of care, there is an insufficient number of resources available to them (Rosland, 2009).
Family education is essential for ensuring patients well being since they provide the daily setting for patient self-management by affecting daily physical activities, diet, bad habits, and even stress management. According to Rosland (2009), family members can have both positive and negative impacts on patients’ self-management, especially when it comes to diet and lifestyle, so it is crucial to educate them on how they could help patients overcome the burden of COPD.
Staff development is another important point when it comes to developing a lesson plan for elevating the burden of COPD. The role of the health team in dealing with the burden of COPD is associated with providing patients with care and support that their families or they personally cannot ensure. Staff development with regards to COPD management is also closely linked to procedures of diagnosis and screening, which are needed for assessing patients’ health. When designing an intervention or a treatment plan for COPD management, the staff should possess the required knowledge and skills on how they can improve patients’ functional capacity and prevent secondary complications, as well as it will enhance the quality of patients’ lives through the management of symptoms (Rosland, 2009).
Learner Assessments: Readiness, Educational and Developmental Level
When assessing learners’ progress as well as their ability to acquire new knowledge, it is important to take into account such factors as readiness to learn, developmental level, and educational level. In order to determine learner readiness, it is important first to ask him or her what they already know about COPD, how the chronic illness is managed, as well as what questions does the learner have (Speros, 2009). To assess the developmental level of the learner, it is necessary to use all resources for a better understanding of which teaching strategies will be effective and which will not.
For instance, a teacher may ask whether the learner has any cognitive needs that affect information processing (e.g. patients may struggle to memorize medical terminology, or family members may become anxious when they hear about the processes that occur in their relative’s body). Regarding the educational level, it can be effective for the teacher to ask the patient (family member or the staff) about their high education and specialization so it is clear how the educator should present the information (i.e. on a more advanced or intermediate level).
Purpose and Rationale: Raising Awareness of COPD
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease is a growing health epidemic that unfortunately received not enough attention from healthcare providers, policymakers, the pharmaceutical industry, and government (Bauldoff, 2012). Thus, immediate action is required for recognizing the disease, which is predicted to become a major cause of disability and death.
Patients’ health is directly affected by the level of their education and knowledge about their disease (Farahani, Mohammadi, Ahmadi, & Mohammadi 2016), so developing a lesson plan to target patients with a specific condition will have a positive impact on the success of the intervention or treatment. Because COPD is a disease that has often been overlooked and understudied, it will be an effective strategy to provide patients with knowledge and information that could enhance their self-management skills to elevate the burden of COPD. Educating family members about how they can support their relatives is another objective that the lessons will pursue because families provide a basis and support for patients’ self-management.
The purpose of selecting the topic of COPD is associated with the fact that it is a progressive disease, which means that its development can be delayed through the treatment of symptoms. Therefore, by educating patients, their families, and health providers on how to effectively manage COPD, it will be possible to overturn the progression of the disease and elevate the burden of health complications that reduce the quality of patients’ lives.
Theoretical Basis for the Teaching Approach: Promoting Self-Efficacy among Patients, Families, and Health Providers
The goal of the patient, family, and staff teaching is influencing the change in behavior, although such changes are complicated to make. For this reason, it can be beneficial to use theories that explain human behavior as teaching guidelines, which can help educators find answers to questions regarding motivation and learning, as well as aid in predicting the implications of targeted interventions. Relating to the context of teaching patients how to overcome the burden of COPD, the self-efficacy theory is the most effective.
Self-efficacy theory explains that the belief in one’s ability to follow a particular course of action used for managing the different situations, i.e. self-efficacy refers to an individual’s belief in how he or she can use personal skills for dealing with a specific situation (Artino, 2012). Following this logic, individuals are more likely to engage in certain behaviors and activities for which their self-efficacy is higher (e.g. a person that used to roller skate is more likely to try skating on an ice rink that riding a horse). Therefore, the objective of the teaching approach will be associated with increasing the level of the patient, family, and staff self-efficacy regarding the management of COPD symptoms and elevating the burden of the disease.
Patient, family, and staff efficacy can be effectively increased through the practical approach towards teaching. It will be effective to provide all three types of learners with practical advice, real-life examples of how people deal with the burden of COPD, strategies and an action plan that they can follow in their daily lives (Fromer, 2011). When learners are provided with practical knowledge that can be applied in real-life situations, they will subsequently enhance their level of self-efficacy and improve their skills when dealing with the management, control, prevention, and elimination of COPD symptoms to eventually eliminate the burden of this chronic disease.
References
Artino, A. (2012). Academic self-efficacy: From educational theory to instructional practice. Perspectives on Medical Education, 1, 76-85.
Bauldoff, G. (2012). When breathing is a burden: How to help patients with COPD. American Nurse today, 7(8), 1-5.
Farahani, M., Mohammadi, E., Ahmadi, F., & Mohammadi, N. (2013). Factors influencing the patient education: A qualitative research. Iranian Journal of Nursing and Midwifery Research, 18(2), 133-139.
Fromer, L. (2011). Implementing chronic care for COPD: Planned visits, care coordination, and patient empowerment for improved outcomes. International Journal of COPD, 6(1), 605-614.
Rosland, A-M. (2009). Sharing the care: The role of family in chronic illness.
Speros, C. (2009). More than words: Promoting health literacy in older adults. Online Journal of Issues in Nursing, 14(3), 68-75.