Sample HND731 Learning and Teaching for Health Professionals Assignment

HND731 Learning and Teaching for Health Professionals Assignment Sample

Task description

For this assessment task you are required to apply your knowledge of education program planning to the design of an education session. You have been asked to provide an education session to a local mothers’ group about gestational diabetes.

Explain how you would plan the education session, including:

• The information you need to know about your participants and how you would conduct a learning needs assessment for the group and explain why this information is important.

• Write 3 learning objectives for the session.

• Select 3 different teaching methods and explain the rationale for your choices in relation to the learning objectives, participant characteristics and adult learning principles.

• Explain the reasons for evaluating education and how you might conduct process and
content evaluation for this session.

Instructions for this assessment task:

• Draw on information and references provided in the unit.

• You are also expected to do your own research of peer-reviewed journals, textbooks and evidence-based guidelines.

• Websites, consumer information, Wikipedia are not appropriate for assessment tasks.

• Make sure you self-assess your assignment against the marking rubric and presentation requirements before submission. This enables you to ensure all the required areas have been covered.

Solution

Introduction

The purpose of this study is to make an education session for the Mothers' Groups regarding the significance of Gestational Diabetes. Gestational Diabetes refers to a type of high sugar level in the blood of pregnant women which usually starts between weeks 24 to week 28 during pregnancy. It is during this period when the body is unable to produce an ample amount of insulin which is a hormone that helps in the metamorphosis of glucose into glucose. This study will highlight the information of the participants in the education session along with various ways of conducting the assessment. Moreover, the importance of the session, learning objectives, different teaching methods and demonstration of the rationale will also be concentrated here. It will examine the logic for the assignment help of the session and the manifold ways through which the content and process of the session will be evaluated.

Information of the Participants

The participants in this education session are mothers who are aged between 25 to 30 years of age. These women who have participated in this education session are unaware of gestational diabetes and its impressions on the life of women. The participants who participated in the session were either pregnant women or they were post-partum.It is to note that most of the women who have participated in this educational session have developed symptoms like fatigue, excessive appetite and thirst. It is even significant that pregnant women are more prone to this disease during the time of pregnancy as the level of insulin reduces making complications for pregnant women (Giannakou et al., 2019). All the participants joined the educational session so as to know the symptoms and treatments of Gestational Diabetes. The educational session was conducted physically to the participants are from Richmond area of Melbourne.

Way of conducting the learning needs assessment

Assessment of the learning needs has a distinctive role in training and education. It is important to observe that the requirement of learning helps in underpinning any educational apparatus. Some of the ways through which the assessments of learning needs will be done are as follows:

Analysis of Discrepancy: This is a form of assessment in which the Mothers’ group who are taking lessons on Gestational Diabetes are assessed regularly. This is concerned with the comparison of the performance level along with the self-assessment, assessment of peers and assessment of objectives and outcomes (Cortez et al., 2019). It also helps in comparing the scores of different Mothers based on their intellectual abilities. Earlier, the schools in most of the developed countries were using this model for demonstrating the difference in the learning ability of a child than others.

Reflection on action and in action: It refers to the factors of learning experiments that comprise critical thinking of the standards of performance such as audio and videotapes (Giannakou et al., 2019). Reflection in action is concerned with the assessments of the groups and their actual staging’s (Moghaddam et al., 2020). It also helps in the identification of the strengths and weaknesses of the Mothers’ Group so that they can be able to reduce these problems and make their performances better.

Accessing the learning needs: The learning needs of the participants will be accessed by conducting an interview round. Every participant will be asked a set of 10 questions in order to understand their knowledge and concept of Gestational Diabetes. After the interview round, the results will be evaluated so that the knowledge gap in the participants can be filled.

Peer Review: This has become one of the most important ways of assessing learning needs. It refers to a way in which the teachers usually assess the practices of each other and give reviews and advice on each other's performance (Horntvedt et al., 2018). It makes the process of teach more interesting (Hillier et al., 2021). There are five forms of peer review which consist of external, informal, internal, physician and multidisciplinary assessments. This helps to boost their validity, acceptability and reliability.Learning needs can be assessed to get a knowledge what mothers’ groups has gathered from the entire education session. It needs to be evaluated as it helps to offer clarity and ability to the mothers’ groups. The considerations that are needed to make during the time of education session is that first of all a proper plan must be figured out. Later, the learning objectives, plans of the learning session, assessment of the participants and implementation of the required resources are needed for conducting an entire education session.

The needs, avulses, characteristics and preferences of the participants interest needs to be considered while implementing the learning session. The length of the program and its setting also needs to be fixed before starting the learning session. The aim gaols and expected results of the learning session must be outlined along with considerations of the environmental and organisational context.

Overview of the evaluation plan

The evaluation process is helpful in understanding the main goal of the plan, the questions that this session is aiming to answer and identifying the key stakeholders of the plan. The evaluation process also helps in understanding the types of inputs and resources that are required to implement in the program. The identification of structure and processes while implementing the plan. The activities that are required to be conducted in the learning session, the expected results of the session can also be analysed through the evaluation process.

Importance of the session

Gestational diabetes is a form of diabetes that women usually develop at the time of pregnancy. This disease can be developed even in those women who do not have diabetes. In Australia, it is observed that nearly 2% to 10% of pregnant women have developed gestational diabetes (Sorce& Chamberlain, 2019). The session is important for various reasons which are given below

It aids in offering a comprehensive guideline of the entire session: The education session helps in imparting to all participants the exact regulations of the session plans that help in offering an understandable vision and objective of the entire education session (Sorce& Chamberlain, 2019).

Enhance effective Communication: Education sessions are generally conducted so as to make a group of individuals aware of a particular topic which is unknown to them at times. It helps in making the process of interaction between the educator and the learner more effective. Effective educators adopt manifold strategies for making education plenary more interesting (Adiewere et al., 2018). The communication process is generally enhanced when the participants in such educational plenary ask queries to the educator regarding the topic so as to enhance their knowledge regarding the specific subject matter.

Needs of Learners: An educational plenary is essential as participants from different cultural backgrounds speaking manifold languages possess various requirements and choices. Hence, an educational session which is conducted to provide certain information to a specific group of individuals helps in catering for their needs (Adiewere et al., 2018). In this case, educational sessions are conducted in order to impart knowledge of gestational diabetes - its symptoms and process of treatment to local mothers’ groups. Moreover, it also aids the mothers’ groups in enhancing their skills and apprehension regarding gestational diabetes and its implications (Goodall et al., 2020). The mother groups were postpartum group and the main focus that this session has given is on educating the mothers on the risk associated with GDM and also the risk of T2DM for those mothers who were already diagnosed with Gestational Diabetes.

In addition, educational sessions on gestational diabetes help the mothers’ groups in identifying the threats that gestational diabetes poses to mothers during pregnancy. This also aids mothers’ groups in developing ideas regarding the strategies that mothers must implement during pregnancy in order to lead a healthy life so that gestational diabetes can be avoided. Here, educating the mothers’ groups regarding gestational diabetes helps in reducing complications during pregnancy and makes the quality of viability better (Goodall et al., 2020). The education session is important as it helps in improving the knowledge of the learners who are the mothers’ groups in this case.

Learning aims and objectives of the session

Aim

The main aim of this learning session is to empower and support pregnant women to optimize their lifestyle with Gestational Diabetes.

Objective

The three learning objectives of this education session are:
To evaluate the action plans that the mothers’ groups must take to reduce the challenges of gestational diabetes.

Goal: To educate the mothers on gestational diabetes prevention measures. In order to achieve this objective, the preventive measures of gestational diabetes will be informed to all the participants.

To identify the higher risks that women face during pregnancy due to gestational diabetes.

Goal: To inform the participants about the health risk of gestational diabetes especially during pregnancy. This objective will be achieved by evaluating the knowledge that the participants have regarding the health risk of gestational diabetes and then educate them in the health risk tat are unknown to them.
To identify the basic symptoms and treatment policies of gestational diabetes.

Goal: To educate the participants about the early symptom of gestational diabetes and the treatments that is available. This objective will be fulfilled by educating the participants regarding the health symptoms of gestational diabetes and providing them with information regarding he available treatments.

The learning sessions included pregnancy-specific food recommendations as well as messages about healthy eating and physical activity. Furthermore, modest behavioural modification tactics were gradually implemented in order to set short-term goals and promote self-efficacy and self-monitoring. Individual goals were set by participants, guided by lifestyle messages, and included objectives such as lowering high fat or convenience foods, increasing fruit and vegetable intake, and increasing physical exercise frequency. Pedometers and weight increase charts based on IOM recommendations for weight growth throughout pregnancy were used as self-monitoring tools. Participants in the intervention got the same textual material as controls, as well as resources promoting optimal health, GWG, and lifestyle.

The women who participated in the program were aged between 25-30 and they did not have an in detailed knowledge of Gestational Diabetes. In addition to this, pregnant women have increased chance of Gestational Diabetes and complications in pregnancy might occur. The complications might occur since during pregnancy, the insulin level in the body is reduced which increases the time for glucose to break down and turn to glucose (El Toony, Khalifa &Ghazaly, 2018). This factor might result in health complications, especially during pregnancy. The learning session that was conducted aimed at communicating the measures or steps that these women can take in order to prevent themselves from suffering from Gestational Diabetes during their pregnancy (Guo et al., 2018). The learning session also helps in developing the knowledge of those women regarding this health issue. There are certain factors that will be considered while accessing the learning needs of the mothers. The main factors include language, cultural differences and education. In the learning session, many participants participated and among them, many had different cultural and linguistic backgrounds. The learning session will keep this in mind while educating and communicating with these participants. In addition to this, many participants also didn’t have good education due to which they didn’t know the concept of Gestational Diabetes.

Different teaching methods

There are various teaching methods that can be applied to develop the learning session conducted for communicating the awareness of Gestational Diabetes to women. The three learning methods are mentioned below.

Learner-centred method: In the learner-centred method, the teacher becomes both the educator and the learner. In this process, education plays a dual role so that the classroom extends instead of limiting the educator's intellectual horizons (Choi, Lee & Kim, 2019). In this method, the teacher gets to learn new things and gathers new information about contents that were unknown to him. This process makes the teacher a resource instead of an authority. In the learning session, if this method is followed the educator will teach and educate the participants on Gestational Diabetes and the teacher in this process will also learn and take outputs from the participants.

Content-focused method: The content-focused method requires both the learner and the teacher to fit well into the content of the learning session. In this method, the main focus is given to the content of the learning session instead of the learner or the teacher. The skills and information that will be learned through this process will reflect the content of the learning session. Huge importance is given to the analysis and clarity of the content that is being taught (Correnti et al., 2021). Both the learner and the teacher in this process will not be able to become critical or alter anything about the content. In the learning session, the teacher will mainly focus on the content of the learning session following this process.

Participatory method: The participatory teaching method is different from learner-centred and content-focused methods since this method does not lay any emphasis on the learner or the content.

This method mainly focuses on learning through participation. In this method, both the learner and the teacher collaborate and engage in the learning process (Gal et al., 2018). The contribution of the learner and the teacher plays a significant role in this method. This method is quite effective since it helps in the development of both the learner and the teacher wherein, both can learn from each other through participation. In this method, both the teacher and the learners in the leaning session of Gestational Diabetes will participate together in the learning process and will gain more knowledge on the health issue.
Explanation of the rationale in association with the choices of participants, learning principles of adults and learning outcomes

Choice of participants: The participants that were mainly chosen for this included women aged between 25-30. The main topic that this significant study focuses on is Gestational Diabetes which is a health issue that might occur during pregnancy. Pregnant women are prone to this health issue and this health issue develops in women when they are 24-18 weeks pregnant (Thomas, Pienyu&Rajan, 2020). In Australia, around 2-10% of pregnant women suffer from this health issue every year. During pregnancy, the body fails to produce enough insulin that is required to break down glucose into glucose. This increases the level of sugar in the blood which then gives rise to Gestational Diabetes. The participants were chosen since most of the participants were women and they which increases the chance of Gestational Diabetes in them when they are pregnant. These women were did not have an in-depth knowledge of Gestational Diabetes and they also did not have any knowledge of the preventive measures of this health concern which showcases that most women in Australia would not know about Gestational Diabetes (Dalfrà et al., 2020). If women develop Gestational Diabetes in them, they might face complications during their pregnancy which will be bad for both the mother and the child’s health.

Learning principles: The learning session focused on various learning principles. The educator of the awareness program understood that all the participants are not that well aware of these health issues and educating them about Gestational Diabetes from the root is important in developing their knowledge regarding the health issue (Biswas et al., 2020). The main learning principle followed in the session was in the form of a participatory method. In this process, both the learner and the educator collaboratively participated in the learning process so that through communication all the queries related to the health issue can be solved. Participants from varied cultural origins and speaking numerous languages have different needs and options participated in the learning session. As a result, an educational session was held to deliver specific information to a specific set of people aids in meeting their needs. In this scenario, educational seminars are held to teach local mothers' groups about gestational diabetes, its symptoms, and the treatment process. Furthermore, it assists mothers' groups in improving their knowledge and anxiety about gestational diabetes and its consequences (Saboula, Ahmed & Rashad, 2018).

Learning outcomes: The learning session assisted in instilling in all the participants the expected outcome of the learning session which helped in providing an understandable vision and purpose of the awareness program (Guo et al., 2018). Furthermore, gestational diabetes educational programmes assisted mothers' groups in detecting the hazards that gestational diabetes poses to moms throughout pregnancy. These also helped mothers' groups establish ideas on the techniques that mothers must apply throughout pregnancy in order to live a healthy life and avoid gestational diabetes. The need for leading a healthy life was also discussed as it was noticed that most of the women who participated in the learning session didn’t have in-depth knowledge about the symptoms and preventative cure for this health concern (El Toony, Khalifa &Ghazaly, 2018). The learning session also helped the participants in knowing the accurate treatment that they need to access if they notice any early symptoms of Gestational Diabetes in them.
Reasons for the evaluation of the session

Evaluating a certain activity or a program is quite essential as it helps in identifying the outcomes of the process (Carr, Loucks &Blöschl, 2018). The evaluation also helps in understanding the strength and weaknesses of a certain activity so that improvements can be made accordingly. The evaluation process also helps in understanding the knowledge that has been gained and how that knowledge can be applied in its specific field. Conducting the learning session was quite essential as it helps in understanding the level of knowledge that women have regarding Gestational Diabetes. The evaluation of the session is quite important in understanding the knowledge gap that exists among women (Carr, Loucks &Blöschl, 2018). The way the women were able to understand the health complications of the health issue needs to be evaluated so that the effectiveness of the learning process can be understood(Arora et al., 2021).An educational program must be evaluated to understand whether the learners understand the basic concepts taught during the session. It also helps in showcasing the effectiveness of the session to the learners as well as to the community. Sessions need to be evaluated so that the there must be more engagement of participants.

Process Evaluation: It refers to the assessment of the education session to examine whether the planned session was executed as it was planned. The intention behind this education program is to reach all the population of the target area and to identify the major risks and strategies taken to combat these risks.
Outcome Evaluation: It assesses what changes the community has undergone after the education session has been implemented.

The three teaching methods are Content-focused method where the educator gives more focus on the content that is gestational diabetes here. Moreover, Participative method and teacher-centric methods are also followed for this education session.

The ways of assessing the content and process of the session

Optimal adjustment to diabetic living: The fundamental objective of education on diabetes is optimal adjustments. This is what the learning session tortoises as the chief goal of circulating educational resources (Saravanan et al., 2020). The learners have to address the problems that are responsible for the emergence of the problems. Identification of the problems is to the cohesive orientation of the needs of the learners that is fundamental to self-management. Therefore, the role of need assessment is important for determining the pattern of the disease that shapes that provides the patients with sufficient information. On the other hand, the repetition of information must be avoided that the learner has already acquainted with. Acknowledgment of the learners' needs must be prioritised as it lessens the chances of risks, anxiety, and concerns for panic.

Avoiding hypoglycaemia: The first criterion for avoiding hypoglycaemia is to make sure to monitor the blood sugar and not skip the necessary meals. The concentration of fibres minimises the dangers related to diabetics and this is hopeful to save the lives of both women and the child (AlKhaldi et al., 2019). The prevention of hypoglycaemia is the agent of the learning session that also has its message of the promotion of physical activities. Staying physically active increases good food habits and controls the fluctuation in the sugar level. The assessment of learning can be done by observing if the women are maintaining the nutritional food charts and the enriched foods. The awareness programme categorises the must-take and the prohibited food habits.

Knowledge on Insulin: The consciousness programme focussed on the diabetic problems emerging out of the irregular intake of insulin. The women were given knowledge of the adverse effects of the insulin being missed or not taken on time. The reactions of the imperfect push of injection could bring negative effects and this can lead to changes in the skin colours (McIntyre et al., 2010). The serious side effects are posited depending on the necessities for insulin therapy originate. The unintentional use of insulin more than necessary might bring on serious dangers and damage to the psyche. An education survey must be properly planned so that participants get more knowledge regarding the preventive factors of gestational diabetes.

Conclusion

It can hence be concluded that Gestational Diabetes is a health issue that around 2-10% of women in Australia differ from every year. The plan to conduct an awareness program to educate the participants regarding this health issue was quite necessary. The learning session helped in generating awareness regarding Gestational Diabetes and also helped in developing the knowledge of women regarding Gestational Diabetes and its early symptoms. The learning session also helped the participants in understanding the right treatment that they can seek if they witness any symptoms of Gestational Diabetes in themselves or in others.
 

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