Evaluation of the Community Teaching Plan for Promoting Physical Activity in the Elderly Population

Evaluation of the Community Teaching Plan for Promoting Physical Activity in the Elderly Population

Community health education helps in encouraging the community to follow various measures that enable a healthy lifestyle. Similarly, community health education helps guide the community in handling various health issues and dealing with multiple health challenges. It is crucial for a healthcare provider to perform an evaluation after completing a health promotion activity like a community teaching plan. The benefits of assessing and evaluating a teaching plan include deriving insights that can show improvement in the lesson delivery and evaluating the actual impact and effectiveness of the lesson, like compliance. Targeting the community education initiative to a specific group or problem is crucial since there are various healthcare problems, and the community is differentiated demographically. In this regard, this paper presents an evaluation of a teaching experience meant to promote physical activity in the elderly population.

Various ways have been recommended based on evidence concerning promoting physical activity in the elderly population. However, adequate knowledge of key stakeholders, especially caregivers and family members, is the key to successfully implementing the recommendations. Community education initiatives are a crucial way of passing knowledge on promoting physical activity among the elderly to the involved stakeholders. Knowledge of promoting physical activity among the elderly is important since it helps encourage the elderly to exercise, which is beneficial for their health (Delle et al., 2018). Similarly, it helps teach the risks involved with a lack of activities and the best exercises that fit the population. The knowledge offered allows families and caregivers to learn the best ways to support the elderly during their workouts. Informed caregivers are vigilant and can easily and correctly guide the elderly during exercises to avoid injury or harm. Adequate knowledge helps families and caregivers generate ideas that enable them to handle the challenges they face when supporting the elderly in their exercises on a personal level.

Summary of the Teaching Plan

The first part of community teaching involved planning for the whole experience. The topic of the community teaching was “promoting physical activity in the elderly population.” The educator made a plan that contained the teaching content and the objectives of the health education initiative. The teaching content and the objective were based on the nursing diagnosis. The primary nursing diagnosis includes various physical, mental, and emotional limitations, increased risk of injury during exercise, and the opportunity to prevent diseases caused by lack of exercise by educating caregivers and family members. The community teaching initiative targeted the elderly who do not exercise and those who exercise but without enough knowledge about it and get support from families or caregivers. The elderly need adequate knowledge concerning the best exercises that suit their bodies and age (NCOA, 2021). Some exercises, such as bodybuilding exercises, can negatively affect the elderly by causing joint pains, among other issues. Similarly, failure to exercise increases the risk of the elderly developing chronic diseases and having stiff bones and joints (NCOA, 2021).

The elderly need enough support and assistance since they face various limitations, hence the need to teach their families and caregivers. The teaching initiative was based on four objectives. The first objective is to increase the number of elderly with reduced physical or cognitive function who engage in light, moderate, or vigorous leisure-time physical activities. The second objective was to increase the number of adults who do enough aerobic physical exercise for substantial health benefits. Third, to teach the population the importance of the benefits of physical activities for the elderly. Fourth, the population would identify the type of exercises they can do and the barriers they can encounter. The teaching content was developed based on the objectives. The lesson was delivered through a PowerPoint presentation. The educator effectively explained every point verbally, using necessary gestures and body language for easy understanding. Similarly, the educator involved the learners through discussions.

Epidemiological Rationale for Topic

The primary health issue under the focus of the community education initiative was promoting physical activity in the elderly population. The lack of physical activities negatively affects the elderly population, hence the need for promotion. According to statistics, the lifestyle of the older population indicates the need for interventions. Data shows that only one out of four elderly persons engage in enough physical activities (CDC, 2021). Approximately 31 million people above 50 years are inactive. This negatively affects people’s lives since lack of exercise increases the risk of developing chronic diseases by 30 per cent (Asp et al., 2017). The older population is at high risk of developing diseases like diabetes, hypertension, and kidney disease. It is crucial to create awareness of the importance of physical activity and committing to exercise due to increased overweight and obesity rates and the huge population of older adults.

Various causes for a sedentary life among the elderly include a stiff body, weak joints, and weak and worn-out muscles. Approximately half of the people 65 years old have health conditions that prevent them from engaging in intensive exercises (Asp et al., 2017). People with hypertension and diabetes require mild exercises to avoid extreme conditions like hypoglycemia for diabetes. Falling among the elderly is another cause for less activity engagement (Kleinke et al., 2020). Lack of knowledge on the best and safest exercises for the elderly is among the many factors that call for interventions. Lack of physical activities leads to various issues, such as inadequate weight management, stiffening joints, weaker muscles, reduced physical balance and mobility abilities, and reduced physiological functions like cellular metabolism as well as organ functioning like the cardiac muscles (Awick et al., 2017).

On the other hand, the positive impacts of engaging in healthcare activity include muscle strength, better physical structure, posture and gait, minimal muscle pains, and improved physiological processes like blood sugar regulation and breathing (Asp et al., 2017). Similarly, physical activities help in reducing the causes of mental issues. According to statistics, older adults who engage in physical activity have a 30 per cent reduced risk of developing depression (Aktürk et al., 2019). Depression affects physical activity rates by making people less active (Aktürk et al., 2019). To ensure healthy aging, it is crucial to teach the elderly various ways to improve their physical activity engagement.

Evaluation of Teaching Experience

As an educator, the teaching experience had multiple outcomes. The teaching experience offers one an opportunity to learn the best way to perform research regarding a specific topic, the best way to deliver the content in an understandable way, as well as an opportunity to learn the health challenges facing the community. The process of planning, which is the first step, helps one make the lesson relatable by identifying the needs of the population (Sharma, 2021). Similarly, the planning process made the educators conduct research that made the lesson evidence-based.

The other point is that high skills were utilized when delivering the lesson. Interacting with learners enables an educator to identify delivery issues that can affect the effectiveness of the teaching project. A positive attitude of the educator helps the learners to be more focused on learning (Awick et al., 2017). The teaching experience allows one to improve their public speaking skills since community education involves interacting with different people at once. In my perspective, the teaching experience was enjoyable and enhanced one’s level of knowledge.

Community Response to Teaching

Generally, the response of the learners was positive. From the feedback, the caregivers and families commented positively concerning the lesson. The learners were excited about learning various ways of promoting physical activities among the elderly. Similarly, they acknowledged that they are responsible for ensuring that the elderly exercise effectively and are free from any danger. Through discussion, the learners were able to open up and ask for whatever they needed and share various challenges. Active interaction throughout the lesson shows a positive response from the learners.

The learners appreciated the skills and the knowledge they received and acknowledged that it would benefit their family members. The learners were confident to apply the learned skills to improve the lives of their loved ones. It was evident that there is a high possibility of approximately 90 per cent of the learners adhering to the lessons. This is because they were active in discussions and ideally related to the lessons and their colleagues. Similarly, the learners enjoyed the PowerPoint presentation and gave positive feedback about the educator. The learners loved the approach of the lesson delivery. Regarding improvement, the learners proposed a demonstration of various safe exercises for the elderly.

Areas of Strengths and Areas of Improvement

There were various strengths concerning the teaching experience. The first strength is planning the lesson. The lesson was correctly and effectively planned, making the whole process. Easy. Effective planning helps in making the community health education structural and objective as well as impactful. Through planning, an educator can identify various issues as early as possible and avoid complications (Sharma, 2021). This helps to ensure adequate preparation, enabling one to offer a productive lesson. The other strength is that the lesson was aimed at the right population and effectively matched their needs. This helps in making everyone relate to the topic, making it easy to understand. The lesson targeted the caregivers, which is crucial since they are younger than the older population and are proactive, making it easy to understand and follow instructions. The other strength is the use of PowerPoint presentations, images, and pictures to educate the population. The use of images made it easy to illustrate the lesson, capture the learner’s attention, and effectively deliver the lesson. Similarly, the use of pictures made it easy for the learners to understand and relate to the lesson.

Through a personal reflection, three areas need improvement. The first improvement is the need to allocate more time for the lesson delivery. Allocating more time enables the learners to have enough time for discussions and interaction. Similarly, allocating more time allows one to offer detailed information during the presentation and other teaching areas. However, one must ensure that the lessons are not too long since it can cause the learners to lose focus and concentration. The other improvement area is to group the elders depending on age and health status. This will help the educator offer the proper education and instruct the right exercises to the right group. There are caregivers and families with elders who have fewer health issues, while others have severe health issues. The different elderly needs need different types of exercises, hence the need for groping them. The other improvement is to design the lessons depending on the learner’s level of education. Learned caregivers and families would easily understand the lesson immediately, while others may need more time to learn and apply the lesson. Planning the lessons that fit the learner’s education helps in preventing cases of leaving out some people.

In conclusion, the project shows that one can easily plan and conduct a small-scale community health education initiative. Adequate planning helps one to achieve the project with minimal resources. Through this project, I have learned that continuous assessment and documentation is a crucial step in nursing. Reflection and evaluation help one identify various areas that need improvement both in the delivery skills and the lessons. This helps in perfecting one’s skills and the delivery of the lesson for future purposes. Documenting all the interventions is crucial for assessment in the future. For an effective health education initiative, a nurse must have crucial skills such as lesson planning, communication, and collaboration. The learning experience did not only benefit the learners but the educator, too.

References

Aktürk, Ü., Aktürk, S., & Erci, B. (2019). The effects of depression, personal characteristics, and some habits on physical activity in the elderly. Perspectives in Psychiatric Care, 55(1), 112-118. https://doi.org/10.1111/ppc.12322

Asp, M., Simonsson, B., Larm, P., & Molarius, A. (2017). Physical mobility, physical activity, and obesity among elderly: findings from a large population-based Swedish survey. Public Health, 147, 84-91. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.puhe.2017.01.032

Awick, E. A., Ehlers, D. K., Aguiñaga, S., Daugherty, A. M., Kramer, A. F., & McAuley, E. (2017). Effects of a randomized exercise trial on physical activity, psychological distress and quality of life in older adults. General Hospital Psychiatry, 49, 44-50. https://dx.doi.org/10.1016%2Fj.genhosppsych.2017.06.005

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. [CDC]. (2021). Adults Need More Physical Activity. https://www.cdc.gov/physicalactivity/inactivity-among-adults-50plus/index.html

Delle F. A., Bassi, M., Boccaletti, E. S., Roncaglione, C., Bernardelli, G., & Mari, D. (2018). Promoting well-being in old age: The psychological benefits of two training programs of adapted physical activity. Frontiers in Psychology, 9, 828. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00828

Kleinke, F., Penndorf, P., Ulbricht, S., Dörr, M., Hoffmann, W., & van den Berg, N. (2020). Levels of and determinants for physical activity and physical inactivity in a group of healthy elderly people in Germany: Baseline results of the MOVING-study. PloS One, 15(8), e0237495. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0237495

National Council on Aging. [NCOA]. (2021). Exercise Programs That Promote Senior Fitness. https://www.ncoa.org/article/exercise-programs-that-promote-senior-fitness

Sharma, M. (2021). Theoretical foundations of health education and health promotion. Jones & Bartlett Learning.

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After reviewing Module 6: Lecture Materials & Resources, explain approaches to community intervention and evaluation. Implement a teaching and evaluation plan.

Evaluation of the Community Teaching Plan for Promoting Physical Activity in the Elderly Population

Choose one topic from the prevention strategies and intervention recommendations identified in the Module 4 Assignment.

Develop a teaching plan, including objective, content outline, teaching method, and time in a table format found on slide 3 of the Template Download Template.

Develop an evaluation plan for your teaching intervention and create a tool for feedback from your learners. Be sure to include the questionnaire and any other teaching tools within the PowerPoint presentation for faculty analysis.

Implement the teaching plan and evaluation during Visit 5 of your clinical experience.

Summarize the outcomes of your teaching plan and evaluation based on the results from the questionnaires.