NRS-429VN Week 5 Health Promotion in Minority Populations

CLC – Health Promotion and Community Resource Teaching Project Example Paper Available in Request

NRS 429VN Week 1 Learning Styles

The biological, physical, social, psychological, and spiritual diversity of humans is attested to by science. The scientific study of human variability might also be helpful in the context of education and training. Both the educator and the learner must comprehend the ideas of learning styles to accomplish teaching and learning objectives. Hu et al. (2021) define a learning style as a learner’s preferred method of processing, absorbing, comprehending, and remembering information. Each learner has a preferred learning style along with tactics for information retention, which are further discussed in this paper.

NRS-429VN Week 5 Health Promotion in Minority Populations

Summary of the Learning Style

After completing the VARK questionnaire, I discovered that I am firmly a kinesthetic learner. Kinesthetic learners learn through carrying out physical activities (Bokhari & Zafar, 2019). The activities may be a full spectrum of or just one of the following: case studies, trials, simulations, lab experiments, or demonstrations. According to Bokhari and Zafar (2019), kinesthetic learning enables the body to communicate through movement, which may be useful in careers requiring practical knowledge like nursing, engineering, medicine and surgery, and catering. Because of this, kinesthetic learners benefit greatly from concrete learning techniques such as active participation in job training with immediate coworkers, simulations, and internships.

Preferred Learning Strategies

People who learn kinesthetically prefer things that are real, even if they are displayed as images or on screens. Practice, simulations, and watching videos on practicum aspects are my preferred learning strategies. Practicing sharpens my skills and allows me to apply what I’ve learned in the classroom to a real-world situation. First, before actively participating in the practice, I like to watch demonstrations and then try on my own or in a group.

The practice includes attempting case studies and problems and assisting others in completing technical projects. I’ve also seen how simulations impact my studies and performance in real practical situations. According to Lesa et al. (2021), simulation is a teaching technique that replicates actual events and processes under test conditions. For example, in resuscitating a child with signs of life, simulations have significantly increased my confidence and ability to handle a real patient situation. Watching videos of actual problems being solved has also helped me to improve my skills in a variety of practicums.

While there are other kinesthetic learning strategies, I’ve mastered the art of sticking to kinesthetic learning through practice, simulations, and video watching. Other kinesthetic learning strategies used by my friends include reading case studies, looking at exhibits, samples, and photographs, role-playing, and discussing notes with another kinesthetic learner. While it has worked perfectly for them, I only use it to supplement my main strategies. My reading and writing learning strategy scored three on the VARK questionnaire, so I gained the least from reading case studies.

Learning Styles and the Degree of Comprehension

The ability of a student to process information differently from another student distinguishes learners. While some students have a single preferred learning style, others may have multiple methods that work for them. Few studies have examined the relationship between a learning style and the level of comprehension and which style is best for learning. In Rujani’s (2019) study, a group of 17 students was given questionnaires to assess their learning style preferences and reading comprehension. The findings revealed that the majority of the students (twelve) were visual learners, four were auditory learners, and one was a kinesthetic learner. 9 of the 17 students scored an ‘A’ in reading, 3 ‘B+,’ 4 ‘B,’ and 1 ‘C’+. 

There were 7 ‘A,’ 3 ‘B+,’ 1 ‘B,’ and 1 ‘C’ in the group of visual learners. There were 2 ‘A’ and 2 ‘B’ in the auditory learners’ group, and the only kinesthetic learner scored a ‘B’ in his reading score. A Pearson correlation was used to determine the correlation between the learning style and the student’s reading comprehension, and the significance score was 0.311, indicating a low correlation. As a result, the researcher concluded that there is a low correlation between a student’s learning style and their level of comprehension. It is, therefore, critical for an educator to understand the learners’ learning styles, incorporate each style into the teaching plan, and accommodate all students.

Learning Styles and Participation in Health Promotion

Health promotion encompasses a wide range of activities, from health education to disease screening to the cessation of risk behaviors such as alcohol consumption and cigarette smoking. The facilitators and the audience/target population are the two groups that take part in health promotion. Both groups must be aware of different learning styles for health promotion to be successful. For example, health educators must accommodate all learning styles, including aural, visual, kinesthetic, and reading/writing learners. This can be accommodated by creating presentations with diagrams, videos, simulations, and problems to be solved, and they must present them verbally to the audience. 

On the other hand, the audience must be aware of their preferred learning style to get the most out of the health promotion talks. The learning styles of the targeted population influence behavior change. For example, by showing the elderly population visuals of prostate cancer statistics, they may see the need for screening and be motivated to go to the nearest facility to be screened for prostate cancer, resulting in a positive behavior change.

Conclusion

Humans differ greatly in their learning and comprehension abilities. While some people have a single preferred learning style, others have multiple styles that help them achieve significant comprehension. Thus, educators should understand their students’ strengths and weaknesses in terms of learning style, a step that allows for the development of a well-suited teaching plan. Although it may appear on the surface that learning styles greatly influence a learner’s understanding, this belief has been disproved by a scribe of authors. Studies have revealed low correlations, which is advantageous to any learner and provides a level ground in which all learners, regardless of learning style, have the same opportunity to gain an understanding of a concept.

NRS-429VN Week 5 Health Promotion in Minority Populations References

Bokhari, N. M., & Zafar, M. (2019). Learning styles and approaches among medical education participants. Journal of Education and Health Promotion, 8, 181. https://doi.org/10.4103/jehp.jehp_95_19

Hu, J., Peng, Y., Chen, X., & Yu, H. (2021). Differentiating the learning styles of college students in different disciplines in a college English blended learning setting. PloS One, 16(5), e0251545. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0251545

Lesā, R., Daniel, B., & Harland, T. (2021). Learning with simulation: The experience of nursing students. Clinical Simulation in Nursing, 56, 57–65. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecns.2021.02.009

Rujani, M. (2019). A correlational study between learning style and reading comprehension at university level students. Proceedings of the First International Conference on Progressive Civil Society (ICONPROCS 2019). https://doi.org/10.2991/iconprocs-19.2019.9

NRS 429VN Week 3 Social Determinants of Health

The World Health Organization ascribes the social domain of health as an important determinant of an individual’s well-being. The social determinants of health (SDOH) are economic and social factors that influence the health of an individual or a group of people (Schroeder et al., 2019). The distribution of social and economic conditions contributes to health disparities between rich and poor people. While focusing on a specific family, this paper aims to provide insight into the SDOH, appropriate health-promoting activities, and a health model that lays out a concrete plan for carrying out the activities.

Description of the SDOH Affecting John’s Family

The SDOH impacts John’s family just like it does any other family. SDOH components affecting the family include economic stability, healthcare and quality, social and community context, education, neighborhood, and the environment. John is a structural engineer, and her wife is an accountant at a five-star restaurant nearby. When they pool their resources, they can provide their children with basic needs such as food, clothing, housing, health, and education. In terms of literacy, John and his wife have completed tertiary education. Their perception of health is positive, as evidenced by Anne having a cervical cancer screening and John taking his antihypertensive medications and monitoring his blood pressure daily.

The neighborhood and environment in which they live are urban. The city has a consistent supply of safe drinking water and electricity; residents rarely suffer from illnesses caused by contaminated water. The only issue may be the continuous air pollution caused by gases emitted by motor vehicles and the numerous factories in the area. In the long run, the emitted gases may endanger the family of respiratory illnesses.

In terms of healthcare and quality, the city is brimming with health facilities offering diverse services, as Anne discovers when she walks into a cervical cancer screening clinic. Furthermore, the surrounding community is supportive, with numerous health-promoting facilities such as gyms, swimming pools, and football fields. However, as evidenced by their sedentary lifestyle, John’s family does not routinely use the resources that put them at risk of diseases like hypertension, which John has, and obesity, which his wife has.

Age-Appropriate Screening for Each Family Member

Health promotion encompasses a wide range of activities and interventions aimed at lowering disease risks. While primary health prevention and promotion strategies aim to prevent disease before it occurs, secondary strategies aim to reduce the impact of a disease that has already occurred, which is accomplished through early disease detection and treatment to halt progression. Tertiary strategies, on the other hand, seek to reduce disease complications and long-term effects (Kisling & Das, 2022).

Because it aims to detect and treat diseases in their early stages, screening is a component of secondary health prevention and promotion. John, who has hypertension, may benefit from screening for the other components of metabolic syndrome, including hyperlipidemia, diabetes, and obesity. Measurements of lipid levels, random blood glucose levels, and body mass index are used to screen for hypercholesterolemia, diabetes mellitus, and obesity, respectively.

Anne would benefit similarly from screening for other components of the metabolic syndrome, such as hypertension, diabetes, and hyperlipidemia. Furthermore, since her mother succumbed to cervical cancer, she had undergone a cervical cancer screening, which turned out negative. Obtaining Abi’s height and weight would be critical in calculating his body mass index and determining whether he has a healthy weight. Moreover, due to Abi’s family’s history of metabolic syndrome, blood pressure, random blood sugar levels, and lipid levels must all be obtained. Sophy and Amor will be subjected to the same screenings as Abi. Because they live in a densely populated city with a recent high COVID-19 transmission risk, all family members require a COVID-19 screening.

Health Model to Create an Action Plan

The health belief model is one of the earliest and most widely used models in matters of health prevention and promotion. The model focuses on an individual’s beliefs and how they impact their behaviors. The model encompasses six factors that impact an individual’s behavior. The factors include (1) perceived susceptibility, in which a person is subjectively aware of the risk of his illness; (2) perceived severity, in which a person is fully aware and feels the severity of his/her illness; and (3) perceived benefits, in which an individual consciously perceives the effectiveness of a behavior change, (4) perceived barriers, which define the obstacles to the action plan, (5) a cue to action which is a stimulus that prompts a decision-making process and (6) self-efficacy, which is the level of confidence a person obtains following achievement of their health promotion goals (Green et al., 2020). Concerning his family, John is aware that physical inactivity and alcohol consumption are risk factors for his illness-hypertension. He is also aware of the severity of his condition-hypertension-and has identified the barriers to achieving healthy blood pressure.

Steps for a Family-Centered Health Promotion

The vast majority of family-friendly interventions are behavioral. First, the family must engage in sweat-inducing physical activity for at least 30 minutes per day, five times per week, for a total of 150 minutes per week, as per the American Heart Association’s recommendation. Second, a dietary plan that meets the goals of John and Anne, as well as the children, is required. The DASH diet will benefit John, whereas Anne should avoid junk food and limit her calorie intake.

Reducing risk behaviors like alcohol consumption and cigarette smoking is an essential step in family-centered health promotion and contributes significantly to the reduction of cardiovascular disorders (Perumareddi, 2019). Medication adherence and regular visits to a primary care physician by all family members are other effective prevention strategies. The family has health communication strategies in place, and the discussions occur during scheduled family time, usually at night or during meal times. Each member is allowed to contribute and express their opinion on the family’s health and make suggestions on how to improve their health.

Conclusion

Whether health prevention and promotion are superior to curative interventions is still contentious. Due to the high prevalence of preventable diseases, it is prudent to prevent their occurrence or halt their progression in their early stages. This heralds the concept of different levels of health prevention, such as primary, secondary, and tertiary. Disease screening is a practice that aims to detect diseases at an early stage so that interventions can be implemented to prevent progression. This approach has significantly reduced morbidity from diseases such as cancer while also relieving patients of the financial burden that would have resulted from treating advanced disease.

References

Green, E. C., Murphy, E. M., & Gryboski, K. (2020). The health belief model. In The Wiley Encyclopedia of Health Psychology (pp. 211–214). Wiley. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781119057840.ch68

Kisling, L. A., & Das, J. M. (2022). Prevention Strategies. In StatPearls [Internet]. StatPearls Publishing. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK537222/

Perumareddi, P. (2019). Prevention of hypertension related to cardiovascular disease. Primary Care, 46(1), 27–39. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pop.2018.10.005

Schroeder, K., Garcia, B., Phillips, R. S., & Lipman, T. H. (2019). Addressing social determinants of health through community engagement: An undergraduate nursing course. The Journal of Nursing Education, 58(7), 423–426. https://doi.org/10.3928/01484834-20190614-07

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