Introduction
Children are more susceptible to peer influence, which may include drug abuse. Talking with the kids from an early age sets them up for the ongoing conversation about life choices. Establishing an early discussion on the topic also fosters an atmosphere that encourages candid and open information sharing. Therefore, this project titled “Say No to Drug Abuse” entails delivering age-appropriate information to fourth-grade students on substance abuse. The themes of this educative content delivery include explaining drugs, their functions, and the potential harm via engaging and interactive approaches such as storytelling, role-playing, and visual aids. The scope of the project covers the harmful effects of tobacco products, underage drinking, and illicit drug use like marijuana.
Storytelling Sessions
The session comprised me as the instructor and two guest speakers, a healthcare professional, and a reformed drug addict. The guests spoke about drugs and their effects, including personal views and how to stay safe when using legal drugs. Other themes of the talk covered daily encounters where children could emulate unhealthy drug use behaviors. For example, watching movies or television with characters abusing drugs, witnessing similar behaviors in neighborhoods, media, or living in a family with users are real scenarios in the daily lives of children.
The narration of the personal life and experience of the guest, a former drug addict, raised emotions and curiosity among the kids. The person highlighted the harms realistically without exaggeration because the project aimed to create an accurate picture by eliminating perpetuated myths about drugs. After the story, the general mood of the children was empathetic, but the information was delivered precisely.
According to Close et al. (2022), storytelling, role-playing, and visual aids are crucial in imparting knowledge and stimulating discussion in a learning environment. The healthcare professional delivered an educative talk about the types of drugs abused, why kids engage in illegal substance use, the harmful effects, and how to live a drug-free lifestyle. Accordingly, this session correlates with the Standard of Professional Performance on Collaboration (American Nurses Association, 2021). It involved working in coordination with others to share knowledge about a healthcare condition and positively impact the personal choices of children in the risk range.
Activities for the Students
The questions below are written in a language appropriate for sharing with the learner during the next session (Figure 1). They are displayed on an overhead projector as the basis for the first exercise. Notably, the quick guide to drugs correlated to the projected questions.
Objectives of the class involved reading a prepared handout, noting at least three benefits of a drug-free living, and drawing a pledge poster promising to refrain from substance usage. Materials included handouts, poster boards, and art supplies like pens or markers. Activities in this part entailed helping the learners develop a drug-free lifestyle, such as keeping mind and body healthy, staying safe, and many more.
As part of extension exercises, the kids had to make posters in the classroom and label a Venn diagram. Labeling activities required students to contrast legal and illicit substances with overlapping circles. The latter helped students learn how drugs can be illegal or not, depending on their use. Applicable Standards of Professional is Communication, particularly conveying information to healthcare consumers in a format that promotes understanding (American Nurses Association, 2021).
The session demonstrated my ability to advocate for personal and community health. Additionally, the students actively engaged in the activity, indicating an eagerness to learn and practice safer drug use through posters and task performance.
Peer Pressure Situations
The session’s objective was to read and discuss a handout on peer pressure, role-play scenarios that emulate peer influence, and learn strategies to deal with bad or good motivations. The primary resource used in this class was a handout complemented by acting scenarios in which an individual experiences negative influence. The students learned to make the right choices, surround themselves with positive friends, say no, and walk away when something is wrong.
The workshop aims to improve drug literacy by having open, considerate conversations with students about situations that are pertinent to their everyday lives. The intention is to stimulate students’ critical thinking and expressiveness around attitudes, behaviors, and beliefs related to drugs. Several factors influence awareness, actions, decisions, and behaviors. According to Nawi et al. (2021), these elements include relationship dynamics that call for social awareness and skills, personal factors that necessitate self-awareness and self-management abilities, and the physical and cultural environments that demand life experience and navigational skills. Therefore, the students learned to:
- enhance social and communication abilities to handle drug-related conversations and conduct,
- develop social and personal coping mechanisms to control the risks and adverse effects of drugs,
- evaluate the various ways that drugs affect people’s health and well-being on an individual, community, and societal level, and;
- acknowledge the limitations of binary concepts, such as suitable versus wrong, in addressing complicated societal issues like drug usage.
The session enabled students to experience practical scenarios where good or bad peer influence may arise. Performance in this task was exceptional as learners distinguished positive from negative peer pressure, and illegal from legal drugs from the situations indicated in the handout. Teaching peer influence on substance use and avoidance coincides with the Standards of Professional Performance on Ethics (American Nurses Association,2021). Specifically, the lesson relates to assisting healthcare consumers in self-determination and informed decision-making as developmentally appropriate. The ultimate goal was to examine how family, peers, culture, media, technology, and other variables influence health behaviors.
Harmful Effects
The last session entails educating the students about the risks of substance abuse by revisiting previous guests’ speeches, class activities, and discussions. Oral and whiteboard presentations of information include reiterating basic facts regarding the risks associated with drugs, drinking, and smoking, as well as the advantages of various drugs. For example, harmful components and the resulting health issues of using tobacco products, such as respiratory diseases and cancer, are vital for educating the learners (Alghzawi & Ghanem, 2021).
In reality, almost all medications are beneficial in some way, and it is important to acknowledge this fact. However, each drug has risks because doctor-prescribed medication can also be harmful if not used correctly (Bah, 2018). Therefore, the students were helped to think of drugs on a spectrum: beneficial usage, increasingly risky use, and harmful practice. Reaction from students was terrific, where many could highlight effects from previous speeches and class activities.
Students learned that using prescribed drugs by a doctor is good, but taking them for unintended purposes or excessive use is drug abuse. A higher concentration of the substance and more frequent and larger doses of drug use are linked to increased risk. For example, extensive alcohol use can lead to brain damage or liver problems in the long run. Younger age equals more risks because drugs impair judgment, which can lead to violent conduct, accidents, and other gracious bodily harm.
Activities in this session include providing a list of harmful effects of each drug based on the spectrum and asking students to categorize them on a poster. A poster-making competition will be initiated in tandem with the educational sessions (Broadbent et al., 2022). Standards for Professional Performance in this context are evidence-based practice and research (American Nurses Association, 2021). The lesson plan utilized current evidence, including research findings, to guide practice decisions and present information verified by researchers.
References
Alghzawi, H. M., & Ghanem, F. K. (2021). Social-ecological model and underage drinking: a theoretical review and evaluation. Psychology, 12(5), 817-828.
American Nurses Association. (2021). Nursing: Scope and standards of practice (4th ed.). American Nurses Association.
Bah, Y. (2018). Drug abuse among street children. Journal of Clinical Research in HIV AIDS and Prevention, 3(3), 12–45. Web.
Broadbent, E., Miller, J. R., Cheung, A., Rollins, E. M., Novilla, L. K. B., Downing, M. S., & Crandall, A. (2022). Concurrent childhood experiences impact underage substance use. Child Maltreatment, 27(4), 605-614.
Close, C., Elek, E., Roberts, C. A., Dunlap, L. J., Graham, P. W., Scaglione, N. M., & Clarke, T. (2021). A national cost analysis of community interventions to prevent underage drinking and prescription drug misuse. Prevention Science, 22(8), 1071-1085.
Nawi, A., Ismail, R., Ibrahim, F., Hassan, M., Manaf, M., Amit, N., Ibrahim, N., & Shafurdin, N. (2021). Risk and protective factors of drug abuse among adolescents: A systematic review. BMC Public Health, 21(1), 1–15. Web.