Community Teaching Essay

Living Learning Communities facilitate learning, growth, and friendship. LLCs seek students who are dedicated and motivated. Personally, I am both; throughout high school, I have worked hard and studied hard. I maintained a high GPA while participating in theatre almost every day after school. Indeed, I was able to take rigorous Advanced Placement courses along with dual enrollment engineering course while helping to run my school’s theatre company, Lymlight Production. I plan to continue both this hard work while at USF. Thus, living in an LLC will help me meet my goals.

This paper will conduct a community assessment of Marion County, Indiana. Marion County is located in the heart of Indianapolis, which is the capital of the state of Indiana. Marion County was created April 1, 1822 and was formed from Delaware New Purchase. It was named after General Frances Marion from South Carolina in the Revolutionary War period. This assessment will address the health needs and risks of Marion County through the use of the WGU assessment forms identifying the population’s economic status, neighborhood and community safety inventory, cultural assessment, and the disaster assessment and planning guide.

Influenza, also known as the flu, is a contagious respiratory illness caused by the influenza virus that infects the nose, throat, and lungs (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,

Although the majority of people infected with influenza recover completely within a week to ten days, some people are at a greater risk of experiencing more severe and long-lasting complications. The flu can lead to complications such as pneumonia and in some circumstances, severe complications in high-risk groups can lead to death. The number of deaths attributed to influenza varies each year, but it is estimated to be approximately 500 to 1500 deaths per influenza season. People who are at an increased risk for complications include very young children, people over 65 years of age, and those already suffering from medical conditions including bronchitis, heart disease, diabetes, and kidney disease. Influenza vaccinations administered to high-risk people reduce hospitalizations, premature deaths, and they result in substantial cost savings to the health care system.

The influenza vaccination in not only beneficial to recipients but also those that come in contact with the individuals exposed to or at risk for contracting influenza. Health care workers are at a constant risk of exposure to various diseases and illness including influenza. An emergency such as a vaccination shortage for influenza will not only affect at risk individuals but spread rapidly to all those exposed without knowledge or a-symptomatic at time of encounter. Health care workers will be exposed in physician offices, hospitals, emergency care or urgent care centers with heightened possibility of spreading the illness (CDC, 2015). Health care workers are not limited to the obvious: physicians or nurses but also, therapists, EMS,

Influenza fortunately can be prevented in most cases. You can prevent it through an annual vaccination. The vaccine is made up of 8 to 10 strains of the influenza virus. When you receive the vaccination the strains have been “killed”, so there is no possible way for you to get this illness just by receiving the vaccination. Your body recognizes the unknown strains and builds up immunity so if a “live” virus gets in your system your body has the correct code to “kill” it off.

Each year in the United States, 3000–49,000 influenza associated deaths occur, with over 90% reported among older adults aged 65 years or older. Influenza also results in an estimated 226,000 hospitalizations, with hospitalization rates among older adults increasing over the past 2 decades (Nace et al., 2015). Influenza is a highly transmissible viral illness that may lead to severe complications from underlying diseases, primary viral or secondary bacterial pneumonia and death (NCBI, 2015). Immunization is one of the most powerful and cost effective interventions against

Directions: Develop an educational series proposal for your community using one of the following four topics:

Influenza also known as the “Flu” is an ongoing health concern each year. It is most prevalent during the fall and winter seasons. Influenza is highly contagious and can spread rapidly when precautions are ignored. Every year numerous cases erupt despite education, health promotion and vaccinations. Flu related complications result in hospitalizations and even death each year, costing billions of dollars to be used in treatment and income lost due to sick days and unproductivity on the infected person’s behalf. Zimmerman et al. 2010 concurs stating, “Seasonal influenza leads to about 36,000 deaths annually in the United States and more than 226,000 hospitalizations.” (Zimmerman et al. 2010). Loerbroks et al. 2012 also states “Influenza and

The flu (influenza) is a highly contagious virus that attacks the respiratory system. The flu has three strains, H1N1 strain, H3N2 strain and influenza B strain. The first known case according to UXL Encyclopedia of Diseases and Disorders “The first influenza pandemic that is known to have been global in scale took place in 1850; it started in China and spread across central Asia to Africa and then to Europe where it nearly wiped out the populations of several major cities in southern Italy and Spain”. The number of cases in the U.S. and worldwide is according to www.cdc.gov “There has been 11,965 laboratory-confirmed flu-related hospitalizations.” The number of cases in the US and world wide per year is 3-5 million.

Influenza A is the worst of the three kinds. According to source 1, flu type A can infect animals, though it is more common among humans. Wild birds are common hosts. Influenza A2 is spread by people who are already infected. It can be spread by sneezing and coughing. Influenza A is the type of flu you get a shot for. It can cause epidemics and pandemics. This is important because we need to know why doctors

Directions: Develop an educational series proposal for your community using one of the following four topics:

Thesis Statement: Recently, the United States has seen a resurgence of many different diseases that we haven 't seen in decades. Much of this problem is caused by failure to get vaccinations, and a key step to solving the issue is education.

Background & Audience Relevance: Influenza is an infection that can affect anyone around the world. Am quite sure almost everyone, if not all of us, have been infected with influenza at some point in our lives.

With a huge number of victims, 80 to 100 million, since 1918, the influenza is considered as one of the most pandemic diseases ever. There are three types of influenza virus: influenza virus A, influenza virus B, and influenza virus c. These are a subtypes of the virus family orthomyx-oviride. The types B and C do not cause pandemic diseases while type A does. The type A classified into three main subtype H1.N1, H1.N2, and H3.N2. The (H.N) refers to the two kinds of proteins on the surface of the virus (hemagglutinin and neuraminidase). The difference in numbers is due to the difference in protein variability. A H1.N1 virus which is widely known as Spanish flu is the only type that can transmit from human to human. The H5.N1, or “bird flu”