Teaching Plan:

Identification of Focus for Community Teaching
Primary Prevention/Health Promotion: Influenza prevention through vaccination.

Epidemiological Rationale
            Influenza is a respiratory disease caused by the influenza viruses which are responsible for seasonal outbreaks of the illness. In serious cases, the outcomes may result in hospitalizations or even death especially for young children, older people or individuals with underlying health problems. Estimates from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) claim that since 2010, the virus has infected between 9 million to 45 million people each year. This has resulted to between 12,000 to 61,000 deaths annually. The best way to avoid the flu according to the CDC, is to get vaccinated annually (CDC, 2020).
I will be educating the community target about the dangers of the disease, how it spreads, who is at risk of infection and the importance of getting the influenza vaccine and where to get it.

Nursing Diagnosis
            Risk for infection due to not getting vaccinated. Lack of knowledge in reducing the spread of the virus and vaccinations.

Readiness for Learning
            Due to the latest viral respiratory diseases reaching pandemic levels such as the HINI virus and coronaviruses, the public is eager to learn about potential flu pandemics and how to prevent them. They are also interested in learning how to avoid getting the seasonal flu.

Learning Theory to Be Utilized
            I will be employing the teach-back technique to teach and gauge the audience’s understanding of the topic. This technique involves asking the patient/learner to repeat the information conveyed to the “teacher” in their own words after which further feedback is given for clarification. This method ensures comprehension by repeating short information sequences that help information recollection and knowledge internalization (DeWalt et al., 2011). I will go through the teaching materials in simple language making sure to simplify any medical jargon in the pamphlets. I will also employ non-verbal communication to complement verbal communication. This will involve using positive body language such as good posture, facial expressions such as smiling when engaging the audience and making eye contact for effective and successful therapeutic interactions (Sibiya, 2018).

Goal
To inform members of the community on the available measures and resources for preventing the infection and spread of influenza.
Relation to Global Health Initiatives
            This Healthy People 2020 goal is similar to the objectives in the Alma Ata Global Health Initiatives which advocate for vaccination against communicable diseases in a bid to prevent and control endemic diseases (Pandey, 2018).

Behavioral Objectives

Creativity
Creativity was a huge part of this exercise. The teaching method involves coming up with unique and relatable scenarios concerning the spread and prevention of the virus. For example, not everyone can afford to take a day off from work. Discussing what would be best in such scenarios involves creative and critical thinking.

Planned Evaluation of Objectives
1. After the presentation, the audience will be asked to explain to the presenter in their own words what they learnt from the exercise

2. Pass a questionnaire with multiple choices asking the audience to identify common symptoms on the virus and what to do when they notice said symptoms.
3. The number of people from the audience that commit to getting vaccinated against the influenza virus.

4.Answering any questions that the audience might still have on the topic.

Planned Evaluation of Goal
The objective of this exercise is to raise awareness on the spread of influenza and to encourage members of the community to get inoculated. I will assess the success of the objective by tabulating the number of people who get vaccinated and the number of documented infections during flu season. These numbers after analysis will be a good indicator for the success of the presentation.

Planned Evaluation of Lesson and Teacher

During the snack breaks, audience members will be handed evaluation forms with questions that rate on a scale of one to five if their expectations from the presentation have been met and if they think the information conveyed was useful to them.

Barriers

People under-estimating the consequences of the influenza virus

Potential communication barriers

Unavoidable human behavior such as not listening during the presentation, leaving for the bathroom and distractions such as phones and laptops

People not filling the forms and questionnaires or filling them incorrectly.

Therapeutic Communication

Before the presentation, I will rehearse it a few times in front of a couple of friends and encourage them to ask questions in order to prepare myself for similar eventualities. The presentation will start with an icebreaker to initiate a conversational tone to the presentation. Introductions will follow. I will use positive body language and make eye contact to keep the audience engaged, making sure to be audible. I will start by introducing the topic and what to expect after the end of the presentation. After each subtopic, I will stop for questions and clarifications using the teach-back method(Abdolrahimi, Ghiyasvandian, Zakerimoghadam & Ebadi, 2017). Videos and other visual aids will be used to aid understanding of how the virus spreads, how to identify the symptoms and how to get vaccinated. A quick refreshment break midway between the presentation will re-vitalize the audience and break monotony to avoid boredom. A Q&A and reflection session will end the presentation and I will thank them for their time and give an email address for further clarifications.

References

Abdolrahimi, M., Ghiyasvandian, S., Zakerimoghadam, M., & Ebadi, A. (2017). Therapeutic communication in nursing students: A Walker & Avant concept analysis. Electronic Physician, 9(8), 4968-4977. doi: 10.19082/4968

CDC. (2020). Burden of Influenza. Retrieved 29 January 2021, from https://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/burden/index.html

DeWalt, D., Broucksou, K., Hawk, V., Brach, C., Hink, A., Rudd, R., & Callahan, L. (2011). Developing and testing the health literacy universal precautions toolkit. Nursing Outlook, 59(2), 85-94. doi: 10.1016/j.outlook.2010.12.002

Pandey, K. (2018). From health for all to universal health coverage: Alma Ata is still relevant. Globalization And Health, 14(1). doi: 10.1186/s12992-018-0381-6

Sibiya, M. (2018). Effective Communication in Nursing. Nursing. doi: 10.5772/intechopen.74995