Community Teaching Plan- Teaching Experience Plan

Summary of the Plan

With an expanding cluster of illnesses for which lifestyle choices are key risk factors, health prevention and promotion techniques must be carefully evaluated. Because hypertension is one of the chronic diseases for which lifestyle choices are key risk factors, it must be addressed at all health prevention and promotion levels.

The community teaching plan seeks to educate community members about hypertension primary prevention and health promotion techniques, using the church as the target audience and the Woodbridge Church in Virginia as the teaching venue. The audience consisted of a huge number of parishioners at Woodbridge Church in Virginia, roughly 2500 worshipers.

The teaching strategy will make use of ‘A Strong Foundation,’ a gospel program at Woodbridge Church that takes place twice a week on Sundays and Wednesdays. Recognizing the believers’ steadfast faith, the lessons were crafted around biblical teachings on the instructions and knowledge on how to live a decent and healthy life, with passages from Corinthians 6:19-20, Romans 12:1, and Proverbs 23:20-21 serving as the foundation of the teachings.

A team of registered nurses (RNs), including myself, delivered four 45-minute sessions over two weeks, twice a week. Various supplies, materials, and equipment were used, including computers, projectors, notebooks, brochures, and other print materials presenting hypertension and primary preventive measures.

The cost was projected to be about $200. However, the actual cost of implementing the community teaching plan exceeded the original estimate. We used the knowledge gap that existed among community members on hypertension and its key preventative methods as a strength and a sign of willingness to learn.

The socio-cultural environment influenced learning, as per Vygotsky’s theory of social learning. The goal of the hypertension community teaching plan was to increase the quality of life, healthy development, and healthy habits throughout all life stages by creating awareness of primary hypertension preventive techniques.

Epidemiological Rationale for Topic

Hypertension is the most prevalent cardiovascular risk factor and all-cause mortality globally. In 2010, 1.38 billion individuals, or 31.1% of the worldwide adult population, had hypertension, defined as systolic blood pressure of ≥140 mm Hg and diastolic blood pressure of ≥90 mm Hg (Mills et al., 2020).

According to the World Health Organization (2021), 1.28 billion people aged 30-79 years have hypertension globally, with two-thirds of them living in low-to-middle-income nations. Hypertension may cause considerable mortality on its own, or it can be linked to events like ischemic heart disease, ischemic stroke, and hemorrhagic stroke.

In 2015, an estimated 10.7 million fatalities were caused by systolic blood pressure ≥110-115, accounting for 19.2% of all deaths worldwide, while systolic blood pressure ≥140 mm Hg caused7.8 million deaths, accounting for 14.0% of all deaths worldwide (Mills et al., 2020). Besides death, multiple prospective cohort studies have revealed that hypertension is a major independent risk factor for chronic kidney disease (CKD) and end-stage renal disease (ESRD).

Despite attempts to minimize the prevalence of hypertension, a large proportion of people are still unaware that they have it, and only a tiny proportion is identified and treated. According to the WHO (2021), 46% of individuals with hypertension are still unaware they have the ailment, whereas 42% are identified and treated, indicating a gap in knowledge and detection of the problem (WHO, 2021).

Furthermore, just around one in every five persons (21%) with hypertension has it under control (WHO, 2021), underscoring the condition’s laxity in treatment. Studies on the economic consequences of hypertension treatment and its sequelae indicate a massive burden.

Kirkland et al. (2018) combined data from 224 920 people, 36.9% of whom had hypertension, in a 12-year longitudinal study from 2003 to 2014, and their results were as follows: The unadjusted mean annual medical expenditure attributable to hypertension patients was $9089; individuals with hypertension had $1920 more annual adjusted incremental expenditure, 2.5 times the inpatient cost, nearly double the outpatient cost, and nearly triple the prescription medication expenditure than individuals without hypertension.

Furthermore, the yearly healthcare costs for hypertension treatment in the United States are $131 billion (CDC, 2022; Kirkland et al., 2018). The data on hypertension morbidity, death, and financial burden highlights the critical need to address the illness. Recognizing the burden, the teaching plan intended to educate congregants of Woodbridge Church in Virginia and residents of the larger Woodbridge census-designated area in Virginia about hypertension and primary preventative strategies.

Evaluation of the Teaching Experience

After the instructional program, it is critical to review whether or not the goals were fulfilled, as well as whether or not it influenced the audience’s actions in terms of healthy living. Questionnaires are an efficient method for quantitatively evaluating a program or intervention.

The following topics will be addressed in this case: “Internet usage for health information,” “participation in healthy living activities,” and “screening” For example, in the questionnaire, asking community members the following questions might be beneficial in assessing the effectiveness of the teaching plan 30 days after it was implemented.

Have you used the internet to look for health information in the last 30 days?
Have you participated in at least 150 minutes of physical exercise each week in the last 30 days?
Have you had a blood pressure check in the last 30 days?
How many days have you been clean in the last 30 days, or how much alcohol have you consumed in one sitting?
How many cigarette-free days have you had in the last 30 days, or how many packs a day have you smoked?

The questions above attempt to establish if the hypertension community education plan affected the main preventative behaviors of community members. This data is used to assess the success of the community teaching plan, as well as to identify the community’s level of knowledge of hypertension primary preventive techniques.

If a gap is identified, solutions to enhance community members’ awareness and involvement in healthy living practices are developed. Aside from taking place 30 days after the teaching program, the evaluation might also happen immediately following the sessions.

After each training session, for example, the audience was asked to define hypertension, how to diagnose the condition, risk factors for the illness, how to identify patients with the condition, and what measures to take to aid patients with the diagnosis.

They were also asked to list the numerous healthy lifestyle choices that might lower their risk of hypertension. Surprisingly and predictably, a large majority of the audience had the right responses, leading educators to infer that the content was properly given and understood.

Community Response to Teaching

After the fourth and final teaching session at Woodbridge Church in Virginia, the majority of the audience was pleased with the presentation, especially since it was built upon biblical teachings. Some others wondered whether a similar session may be conducted in the near future to educate the community about a different subject. The questionnaires used to assess the teaching plan show increased hypertension awareness and healthy lifestyle practices.

The majority of the community reported using the internet to seek health-related information in the previous 30 days, and the majority of them reported engaging in physical activity in the previous 30 days, in accordance with the American Heart Association’s (2018) recommendation of at least 150 minutes per week of moderate-intensity aerobic activity or 75 minutes per week of vigorous aerobic activity, or a combination of both, preferably spread throughout the week.

The majority of them also claimed that they had reduced or quit drinking or smoking, underscoring the influence of the training plan on them. Local primary care clinics, such as Sentara Northern Virginia Medical Center, Inova Alexandria Hospital, and Uva Prince William Medical Center, among others, indicate a rise in the number of patients seeking hypertension screening services in the outpatient clinic. Maintaining good living habits would eventually lower the number of hypertension patients in society, resulting in a healthier population.

Areas of Strengths and Areas of Improvement

The method of delivery was flawless since the teaching plan was presented by a team of RNs with hypertension expertise. Also present were firm faith believers who assisted in integrating biblical teachings into the teaching plan of primary preventive techniques for hypertension.

The church elders supported the initiative and even dedicated one of the gospel projects to serve as a platform for the teaching plan, which we saw as a strength. Furthermore, although the lack of information on hypertension and its preventative techniques is a weakness among community members, it is a strength that we used to influence their understanding of hypertension.

Funding a comparable project in the future will need improvement since we exceeded even our first budget. As a result, extra cash for miscellaneous must be put aside to cover any unexpected expenses. Furthermore, not everyone in the community spoke English, highlighting the requirement for an interpreter in the future. Moreover, there was little assistance, especially for elderly people with declining hearing and eyesight, an occurrence that must be considered when constructing a comparable teaching plan in the future.

Conclusion

The most common risk factor for cardiovascular disease, hypertension, continues to wreak havoc on patients and the healthcare industry as a whole. The data on hypertension morbidity, mortality, and financial consequences are intriguing, highlighting the critical need to manage the condition.

After investigating all known approaches to minimize the prevalence of hypertension in the community, primary prevention and health promotion efforts remain the best solutions. As a result, the community teaching plan was created to educate community members about primary hypertension prevention strategies, with the church serving as the delivery platform. As a result, the strategy was implemented, including biblical teachings on living a good and healthy life with initiatives to lower the incidence of hypertension.