Applying learning theories to healthcare practice braungart

TEACHING PLAN 2

High-Level Teaching Plan for A Diverse Learning Environment

Student’s Name

Course Code

Institution Affiliation

Date

A Patient Educator in A Hospital

Introduction

Nursing is not all about giving medications or treating patients. It is the responsibility of the nurses to educate patients on how to prevent illnesses and how to manage certain medical conditions. Nurses can do these by interacting and communicating with patients. By doing this, they will help patients understand how to take control of their health care. When patients take part in their health care, they are likely to change their behaviors and do things that are likely to improve their general health.

My role and the environment I will utilize for teaching

According to Burke and Mancuso (2012), learning is very important in any nursing environment. Effective education of patients happens from the time they are admitted at the hospital and goes on until the patients are discharged from the hospital. For out-patients, I will educate them during their waiting time. As a nurse I will take every opportunity I will come across during the patients’ visit to the hospital and throughout their admission in the hospital to educate them about their health care. I will provide patients with instructions to follow on self-care and how to maintain certain problems. Some of the self-care instructions include;

· How to follow the steps of self-care

· How to know early signs of certain illnesses

· How to go about emergency problems

· Who to contact in case of problems

The intended audience

I will educate people of all populations in my education program regardless of their age, culture, illness, ethnicity, and gender. General education will be provided to all patients on how to take care of themselves when they leave the hospital. This important because sometimes patients go home, neglect themselves, resume their unhealthy practices, and forget to manage their medical conditions. For patients suffering from diabetes, I will educate and provide them with instructions on how to inject themselves with insulin. For new mothers, they will learn how to take care of their new born babies and how to bath the infants. I will provide instructions on how to change a colostomy pouching system for the concerned patients.

The Social Cognitive Learning Theory

Key points of the theory

This theory concentrates on the impacts of social factors on a person’s thinking, perception and motivation. According to the social cognition theory, a patient must have different perspectives, approaches, and reactions to situations in the health care environment. The players in the health care setting would be expected to have different perceptions, interpretations, and responses to a situation that are strongly colored by their social and cultural experiences (Braungart, Braungart, & Gramet, 2008).

Why this theory fits the topic, audience, and the context

The healthcare sector has become diverse. I will be handling patients from diverse backgrounds with differences in culture, beliefs, gender and ethnicity. It will require me to have different perspectives, approaches and responses to the situations. This is because they are all different and they need different treatments.

For example;

Patients with certain illnesses from a particular culture may believe that according to their religious believes, their diseases are a punishment for their wrong doings. Other patients may believe that their diseases are as a result of witch craft, associating their conditions on the actions of others. From all these perspectives, the patients’ reasons for their illnesses may not encourage treatment or getting well. The route to changing health behaviors is to change distorted beliefs and explanations experiences (Braungart, Braungart, & Gramet, 2008). The social cognition theory is very important because in the current health care setting, diversity is growing starting from age, ethnicity, and education, hence it is the most applicable approach.

Potential Diversity Anticipated

As noted earlier, the health care sector is becoming more diverse each passing day. Nurses are facing a lot of challenges emanating from these cultural diversities. Nurses today are providing care, education, and case management to an increasingly diverse patient population that is challenged with a triad of cultural, linguistic, and health literacy barriers (Singleton, & Krause, 2009). In this multicultural environment of education, culture and language matter a lot in a successful patient education process.

1. Education

The rate at which people can receive, process and understand the basic health education given to them depends on their level of education. It has been recognized that health literacy disparities contribute to racial and ethnic health disparities (Institute of Medicine, 2009). People are educated differently and some are totally illiterate. It will be hard for me to educate in this kind of environment considering the fact that the learned individuals will have the capacity to obtain and process well the health information given and make the correct decisions while the illiterate ones will need further help.

2. Cultural diversity

Different cultures explain different diseases and illnesses differently. Different cultures have their religious and magical beliefs. So, some patients will believe that their illnesses are caused by supernatural forces while others believe that their illnesses are as a result of punishment from God. It will be hard for a nurse to get a general desired result after educating these groups. The issue of gender comes in too. Some cultures believe that men are special beings than women so it is right to teach a woman but not a man. For a female nurse, it will be hard to teach male patients. Male patients also may not agree to receiving education from a female nurse since they may feel undermined.

3. Language diversity

Language and culture are closely related. People who come from the same community, country, or geographical area will probably speak the same language. Here is a situation whereby the nurse is faced with people from different countries, communities, and geographical areas, and all need to be provided with patient education.

Hot to Address the Issues of Education, Language and Cultural Diversity in Patient Education

Despite the fact that diversity comes with a lot of challenges, there are many ways to address the issues of education, language and cultural diversity. They include;

1. Becoming culturally competent

Cultural competence is the way in which a nurse consistently works hard to obtain the capability to effectively operate within a cultural environment of a person, community or country. It is important for any patient educator to become culturally diverse in order to meet the culturally diverse needs of the patients. Culturally competent health care can be defined as providing services reverential to the cultural and linguistic needs of patients (Johnson, Killinger, & Hyland, 2012). It is good to have the capacity to accommodate every culture positively.

2. Language proficiency (learn different communication styles and languages)

It is important for any nurse educating patients in a diverse environment to try and learn different languages and communication styles in order to easily understand the patients and teach them effectively. I will need translators who will help me understand my patients.

3. Understanding the problems of the minorities

Most of the people faced by these issues of education, language and culture are the minorities in society. So, by understanding them, it will be so easy to interact with them. Understanding their views and giving them time to explain themselves will allow me to understand them better and make teaching easy.

How to Manage Conflict in A Patient Classroom Resulting from Diversity

1. Cross cultural communication

Language is the main mode of communication between nursing instructor and student; however, whether it is the spoken word or written work, language often can become a major stumbling block (Bednarz, Schim, & Doorenbos, 2010). I will ensure that patients understand that we all come from different backgrounds and we cannot all be the same. It is crucial for patient to understand how diversity manifests itself in health care. Then, I will highlight how each patient can contribute to solving the problem of diversity in the classroom.

2. Develop a supportive relationship with the patients.

Since the patients are different, they need a conducive environment in order to receive education. A supportive relationship will help reduce any conflicts that may arise.

3. Provide an array of different learning environments

It is important to move the patients closer to their environments. They will feel accommodates and valued. For example, patients who have disabilities will require a special environment in order to educate them. I will ensure the necessary systems are in place in order to attend to them in the right environment to avoid a commotion with the other patients.

4. Negotiation

I will negotiate with the patient on the best method they will like us to apply in order to meet the requirements of the course, our objectives, and patient satisfaction. Negotiation will bring the whole group to a common agreement and this will reduce conflicts.

References

Bednarz, H., Schim, S., & Doorenbos, A. (2010). Cultural diversity in nursing education: Perils, pitfalls, and pearls. Journal of Nursing Education, 49(5), 253-260.

Braungart, M. M., Braungart, R. G., & Gramet, P. (2008). Applying learning theories to healthcare practice. SB Bastable, Nurse as educator: Principles of teaching and learning for nursing practice, 3, 51-89.

Burke, H., & Mancuso, L. (2012). Social cognitive theory, metacognition, and simulation learning in nursing education. Journal of Nursing Education, 51(10), 543-548.

Institute of Medicine (2009). Toward health equity and patient-centeredness: Integrating health literacy, disparities reduction, and quality improvement workshop summary. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.

Johnson, C., Killinger, L. Z., Christensen, M. G., Hyland, J. K., Mrozek, J. P., Zuker, R. F., ... & Oyelowo, T. (2012). Multiple views to address diversity issues: an initial dialog to advance the chiropractic profession.

Singleton, K., Krause, E., (Sept. 30, 2009) "Understanding Cultural and Linguistic Barriers to Health Literacy" OJIN: The Online Journal of Issues in Nursing. Vol. 14, No. 3, Manuscript 4.