Nursing Considerations For Education

“Health is influenced by culture and beliefs” (NRS-429V, 2011, p. 1). In order for the nurse to properly care for the patient, she must know and understand the patient’s culture. “Cultural care is a comprehensive model that includes the assessment of a client’s cultural needs, beliefs, and health care practices” (NRS-429V, 2011, p. 1). It is not enough to just know where the patient lives or where he came from. The nurse must embrace the concept of cultural competence and cultural awareness. This requires not only the awareness of the cultural beliefs and values of their patients, but also

Teaching-learning session is almost the same to the nursing process that is used in clinical settings (Habel,2006). In the learning process, the initial step is assessment of the learners understanding towards their health condition, which is then followed by the questions what do they need to learn and what will be the appropriate approach to teach them (Habel, 2006).

Being a student in the UW nursing school, I can not only take advantage of the special classroom settings, but also the advanced technology. With classroom settings designed for active learning, it gives me opportunities to share my thoughts and ideas with other students. Instead of listening passively, we would work as a team to find out the best solution for patients. Besides, the unique state-of-the-art technology allows me to practice and apply my knowledge in a simulated hospital setting. Since every practice is recorded, I can take a look at those videos several times and self-reflect. Thus, I can correct my mistakes and improve.

The effective patient-centered, culturally competent, holistic care can be provided only by culturally competent nurses, able to “recognize and understand the differences in their culture and the culture of others; to respect other 's values, beliefs, and expectations.”(Edelman, Kudzma, Mandle, 2014). In order to provide quality, safe and efficient care and meet patient 's needs, nurses must expand their cultural knowledge, be aware about patient 's culture, and have “an honest desire to disregard personal biases and to treat every person with respect.“(Edelman, Kudzma, Mandle, 2014). The Heritage Assessment Tool (HAT) was introduced by Rachel Spector in 2000. This tool assists “to determine both inter and intra-ethnic group differences in respect to a given heritage and also to traditional health and illness beliefs and practices:” (Spector). The HAT is a combination of twenty nine questions, aimed to gather information from different families: about the family members, place of birth, relationship within the family, language, beliefs, traditions and etc. The information, gathered during the HAT interviews, is useful to understand more about the patient 's culture, beliefs, traditions, spiritual beliefs, patient 's understanding of health and illness before starting the care and developing an individual care plan related to health maintenance, health protection with health restoration. According to R. Spector, being “culturally sensitive, culturally appropriate, and

Health in all cultures is an important aspect of life. A person’s cultural background, religion and/or beliefs, greatly influences a person’s health and their response to medical care (Spector, 2004). These diverse cultures guide decisions made in daily life; what food eaten, living arrangements made, medications taken and medical advice listened to. A nurse must be knowledgeable and respectful of these diverse cultures and understand their importance when providing care. This understanding helps to build a strong nurse/patient relationship, increasing patient compliance, which ensures positive outcomes are met. Patients who are satisfied

Patient teaching is an essential part of the healing procedure. Deliberately knowing how to diet, exercise and sleep can have an impression on the patient’s physical and mental health and this is a vital tool to uphold one’s health and vitality.

Nurses have the responsibility of caring for a diverse group of people. These people come from different cultures, races, and religious backgrounds. Religion plays a major role in patient care and has for many years. Cultural competency is a major component of nursing practices. Understanding culture is imperative in knowing what is important to a patient and how to address his or her healthcare needs. Understanding culture is also important when determining what suggestions to make about interventions for treatment. Culture is defined as many people interacting and sharing with one another their patterns of behavior, beliefs and values (Burkhardt, G. & Nathaniel, A., 2014).

There are many tools you can use to aide in education. You may use pamphlets, DVD’s, audio tapes, charts, models and other tool you can think of, depending on the age and mental capabilities of the patient.

After identification of a patient teaching need the next step in the teaching process is establishing a measurable goal. “Teaching goals are broad in scope and set down what is expected as the final outcome of the teaching and learning process” (Wilkinson & Van Leuven, 2007, p. 538). In order to achieve a high level of standard, teaching goals need to be specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and timely. For our example, the teaching goal for J.L. and his diabetic foot care is as follows: Client is able to state five things he can do to prevent diabetic foot complications by the end of the teaching session implemented on Sunday January 24, 2012. Specifically, the five items J.L. will identify are to monitor and manage his diabetes, inspect feet daily, wash feet with warm water while drying between toes and apply moisturizing cream to feet daily (not between toes), avoid walking barefoot or with unfitted shoes, and calling the doctor should he notice any changes in his feet.

On what basis may decisions be made about the inclusion in the curriculum of specific subject content?

The teaching plan can be tailored to the needs of the patients who will be attending the classes. It can be tailored to the patient’s abilities, developmental stage and learning styles. The teaching plan can be a combination of lecture format, handouts, videos, powerpoint presentations, demonstrations and group discussion. The fee charged for the teaching program has to be determined by the person, group or facility offering the teaching program. Many insurances do not reimburse for this type of education. This has to be taken into consideration with the intended audience.

The nurse should act as a facilitator, creating an environment conducive to learning that motivates individuals to want to learn and makes it possible for them to learn (Musinski, 1999). The assessment of learning needs, the designing of a teaching plan, the implementation of instructional methods and materials, and the evaluation of teaching and learning should include participation by both the educator and the learner. Thus, the emphasis should be on the facilitation of learning from a nondirective rather than a didactic teaching approach (Knowles, Holton, & Swanson, 1998; Musinski, 1999; Mangena & Chabeli, 2005; Donner et al., 2005).

According to (Bennett et al., 2012) many studies carried out, presented each individual to have a unique way of processing information. Visual learners prefer to use pictures and images, auditory learners prefer to hear information or instruction given and kinesthetic learners would physically need to do the skill/task (Bennett et al, 2012). The nurse should use a variety of techniques such as, one-to-one discussion, families and group discussions, computer-aided teaching and written material. Therefore, at the start of an educational session with Mr. Brown, the nurse should establish the appropriate learning style and strategy to

The first step would be to find out how the patient learns best. Some people are good at reading and understanding material and, then, following it while others learn best by writing things down in their own handwriting, and still others, learn best by doing things to get the feel of it. Talking with the patient and asking questions can help determine how a patient learns things the best way for them.

Whether in the classroom or clinical setting, I believe that the process of learning should not be static, but rather fluid in the sense that questions should be asked back and forth between educator and student. A dialogue should be created so that both student and teacher are actively participating in the learning process. Through this way of learning, one has to actively think and apply the information they have on a particular subject, instead of just memorizing facts. I have found that this is the best way for me to truly process and retain information.