health education prelims

• Assessing the Learning Need

  1. Validates the need for learning and approaches for designing learning experiences

  2. Identify and prioritize information for setting behavioral goals and objectives, planning instructional interventions, and evaluating learner achievement

  3. Good assessments ensure optimal learning with least stress and anxiety, prevent repetition, save time and energy, and establish positive communication between nurse and learner
• Determinants of Learning

  • For patients and families to improve health and adjust to medical conditions
  • For students acquiring information and skills to become a nurse
  • For staff nurses devising more effective approaches to educating and treating patients and one another in partnership
• Health Education Process

  1. Learning Outcome: Identify the 3 components of determinants of learning

  2. Describe the steps in the assessment of learning needs

  3. Differentiate methods in assessing readiness to learn

  4. Compare and contrast the Learning Style
• Education Process


  • Consists of assessment, planning, implementation, and evaluation
  • Focuses on planning and implementation of teaching based on assessment and prioritization of client’s learning needs, readiness to learn, and learning styles
  • Systematic, sequential, logical, scientifically based, planned course of action consisting of teaching and learning
• Steps in Assessing Learning Needs


  1. Identify the learner – who is the audience?

  2. Choose the right setting

  3. Collect data about the learner

  4. Collect data from the learner

  5. Involve members of the healthcare team

  6. Prioritize needs

  7. Determine availability of educational resources
• Assessment of the Learner

  1. Nurse educators must identify learning needs first to design an instructional plan addressing deficits in cognitive, affective, or psychomotor domains

  2. Once learning needs are identified, educator can determine when and how optimal learning can occur
• Assessment of the Learner

  1. Assessment of learning needs are gaps in knowledge between desired and actual performance

  2. Learning need is the gap between what someone knows and what they need or want to know due to lack of knowledge, attitude, or skill

  3. Includes 3 determinants of learning: Learning needs, Readiness to learn, Learning style
• Desirable Learning Needs


  • It is important for patients with cardiovascular disease to understand the effects of a high-fat diet on their condition
  • It is desirable for nurses to update their knowledge by attending an in-service program when hospital management decides to focus more attention on patient education materials
• Possible Learning Needs


  • The patient who is newly diagnosed as having diabetes mellitus most likely does not need to know about self-care issues that arise in relationship to traveling across time zones or staying in a foreign country because this information does not relate to the patient’s everyday activities
• Steps in Assessing Learning Needs

  1. Determine availability of educational resources

  2. Assess the demands of the organization

  3. Take time-management issues into account
• Mandatory Learning Needs


  • A patient who has experienced a recent heart attack needs to know the signs and symptoms and when to get immediate help
  • The nurse who works in a hospital must learn how to do cardiopulmonary resuscitation or be able to carry out correct isolation techniques for self-protection
• Time management issues

  • Close observation and active listening are more efficient upfront
  • Learners should be given time to offer their own perceptions of their learning needs
  • Assessment can be conducted anytime and anywhere
  • Informing a patient ahead of time about discussions improves understanding and satisfaction
  • Minimizing interruptions and distractions during planned assessment interviews maximizes productivity
• Methods to Assess Learning Needs

  1. Informal Conversation

  2. Structured Interviews
• No matter how important the information is or how much the educator feels the recipient of teaching needs the information, if the learner is not ready, then the information will not be absorbed
• Readiness to Learn is defined as the time when the learner demonstrates an interest in learning the information necessary to maintain optimal health or to become more skillful in a job
• Observations


  Observing health behaviors in several different time periods can help the educator draw conclusions about established patterns of behavior that cannot and should not be drawn from a single observation
• Documentation


  Initial assessments, progress notes, nursing care plans, staff notes, and discharge planning forms can provide information about the learning needs of clients
• Focus Groups


  A group of 4-12 is created to determine areas of educational need by using group discussion to identify knowledge about a certain topic. A facilitator leads the discussion by asking open-ended questions intended to encourage detailed discussion. It is important to create a safe environment so that participants feel free to share sensitive information in the group setting
• Physical Readiness


  • The amounts of energy available and the individual’s present comfort level are factors that significantly influence that individual’s readiness to learn
• Questionnaires


  Educators can obtain learners’ written responses to questions about learning needs by using survey instruments. Checklists are one of the most common forms of questionnaires. They are easy to administer, provide more privacy compared to interviews, and yield easy-to-tabulate data
• Measures of Physical Readiness


  • Ability to perform a task, Complexity of task, Environmental effects, Health status, Gender
• Measures of Knowledge Readiness

  • Present knowledge base, Cognitive ability, Learning disabilities, Learning styles
• Emotional Readiness


  • A strong support system decreases anxiety, while the lack of one increases anxiety levels
• Emotional Readiness


  • Anxiety level influences a person’s ability to perform at cognitive, affective, and psychomotor levels. It affects patients’ ability to concentrate and retain information
• Informal Conversation


  Learning needs are discovered during impromptu conversations that take place with other healthcare team members
• Tests


  Giving written pretests before teaching is planned can help identify the knowledge levels of potential learners regarding a particular subject and assist in identifying their specific learning needs. This approach prevents the educator from repeating already known material in the teaching plan
• Methods to Assess Learning Needs

  1. Informal Conversation

  2. Structured Interviews

  3. Focus Groups

  4. Questionnaires

  5. Tests

  6. Observations

  7. Documentation
• Physical Readiness


  • Variations in the complexity of the task affect the extent to which the learner can master the behavioral changes in the cognitive, affective, and psychomotor domains
• Physical Readiness


  • Ability to perform a task requires fine and/or gross motor movements, sensory acuity, adequate strength, flexibility, coordination, and endurance
• Issues that arise in relationship to traveling across time zones or staying in a foreign country


  This information does not relate to the patient’s everyday activities
• Measures of Experiential Readiness

  • Risk-taking behavior, Frame of mind, Developmental stage, Level of aspiration, Past coping mechanisms, Cultural background, Locus of control
• Physical Readiness


  • Research indicates that women are generally more receptive to medical care and take fewer risks with their health than do men
• Physical Readiness


  • An environment conducive to learning helps to hold the learner’s attention and stimulate interest in learning. Unfavorable conditions, such as extremely high levels of noise or frequent interruptions, can interfere with a learner’s accuracy and precision in performing cognitive and manual dexterity tasks
• Structured Interviews


  The educator asks the learner direct and predetermined questions to gather information about learning needs. It is important to establish a trusting environment, use open-ended questions, choose a setting free of distractions, and allow the learner to state what are believed to be the learning needs. Remaining nonjudgmental is crucial when collecting information about the learner’s strengths, beliefs, and motivations
• Emotional Readiness


  • Knowing the motivational level of the learner assists the educator in determining when someone is
• Measures of Emotional Readiness

  • Anxiety level, Support system, Motivation
• Emotional Readiness


  Frame of Mind involves concern about the here and now. If survival is of primary concern, then readiness to learn will be focused on meeting basic human needs
• Developmental Stage

  Each task associated with human development produces a peak time for readiness to learn, known as a “teachable moment”
• Experiential Readiness

  Cultural Background - Knowledge on the part of the educator about other cultures and being sensitive to behavioral differences between cultures are important to avoid teaching in opposition to cultural beliefs
• Experiential Readiness

  Past Coping Mechanisms - The coping mechanisms someone has been using must be explored to understand how the learner has dealt with previous problems