Community Teaching Plan: Teaching Experience Paper

Running head: COMMUNITY TEACHING PLAN: TEACHING EXPERIENCE PAPER
Community Teaching Plan: Teaching Experience Paper
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1COMMUNITY TEACHING PLAN: TEACHING EXPERIENCE PAPER
Introduction
Diabetes is considered to be one of the most serious chronic diseases in the world
because of its negative social, economic and prevalence effects. It also influences the quality
of life of the affected patients as its diagnosis changes the life habits including physical
activities, food habits and calls for a constant self-care. It is to mention that in the year 2019,
about 463 of million the world’s population were suffering from diabetes. As per the study of
Saeedi et al. (2019), the number is expected to increase and reach to 578 million by the end of
2030 and 700 million by 2045. In United States alone, the management and treatment of
chronic conditions are said to comprise of about 84% of the health care expenditures of the
country. As per the data gathered from the CDC National Diabetes Statistics report of the
year 2018, about 30 million of people in America in the year 2015 were suffering from
diabetes and the most surprising thing to know is that about a quarter of them did not even
knew that they have it (Centre for Disease Control, 2018). However, the community based
programs on the issue of diabetes have shown some significant success rates in the
improvement of diabetes results. While medication is very important for treating diabetes,
there is a great need of cheaper, effective and easily applicable medications, primary and
secondary preventions and management approaches for the disease.
It is to mention that the topic of Type 2 diabetes has been chosen for teaching the
community members about the diabetes management procedures and offer them with primary
education on the same and how they can prevent it from happening. There is a clear sign of
growth in diabetes rates in the coming years and for this reason, the health care providers
have the responsibility to provide with best control methods for the type 2 diabetes condition.
Summary of Teaching Plan

2COMMUNITY TEACHING PLAN: TEACHING EXPERIENCE PAPER
At first, a research was conducted on the target community on the basis of the
population with highest prevalence of diabetes. It has been found that in United States,
community with racial minorities such as African-American, Pacific Islanders, Hispanics and
Asian Americans are the highest in terms of suffering from diabetes as compared to the
Whites (Tan et al., 2014). For the community teaching African Americans were chosen.
Teaching plan included- a) patient self-management, b) basic understanding of diabetes by
the evaluation of glucose levels, c) understanding of diabetes type, d) monitoring of blood
glucose level, e) nutrition education and f) physical activity. It is also to mention that the
teaching plan took into consideration the community characteristics like the dietary
preferences of the members, their income levels, their accessibility to health care centres.
This is due to the fact that all these information helped in creation of a teaching plan, which
maintained specificity while addressing some specific issues so that the community members
could be easily implementing them.
It is to mention that the teaching process was decided to take place for two days, for
four-four, eight hours. It was planned in such a manner so that all the topics could be
thoroughly covered. Four hours is a long time. A lot of time was dedicated for each of the
topics and they include physical demonstrations and question asking sessions as well. It is
also to mention that in this process, the County Department of health and the local health care
institutions and centres helped in mobilising the effected members and give information
about the characteristics of their diabetes type. It helped in the formulation of the teaching
plan to a great extent.
An evaluation sheet was given after the session ended with questions like- Was the
session easy to understand, Rate presentation from 1 to 5 (1 being lowest and 5 being
highest),and Suggestion for further improvement.

3COMMUNITY TEACHING PLAN: TEACHING EXPERIENCE PAPER
Epidemiological Rationale for the Topic
It is to note that more than 29 million of Americans suffer from diabetes. According
to Adepoju et al. (2014), it comes with a high level of long term financial and personal cost to
patients, their communities and the national economy as a whole. With the same, it is a
disease that knows no age or race boundaries. However, research studies have revealed that
the cases of diabetes are higher among the racial and ethnic minorities compared to the
Whites. The prevalence of both diagnosed and non-diagnosed diabetes is between 70 to 80%
among the non-Hispanic blacks and the Hispanics compared to the non-Hispanic whites.
Furthermore, as per the study by Blecker, Park and Katz (2016), the African Americans and
the Latinos who got hospitalised for diabetes had higher risk of getting admitted in the
hospital in the future compared to the White Americans. It is to mention that these
communities face health care disparities because of lack of health insurance, existence of
cultural barriers, inaccessibility of the health care providers and language barrier (Kohn-
Wood & Hooper, 2014).
American Diabetes Association (2016) have opined that the individuals with diabetes
face a long term risk of comorbidities along with shorter life expectancy, declination in the
life quality and other severe diabetes related issues. The estimated increased in diabetic cases
globally is attributed to increase in poor diets of people, obesity cases and lack of physical
exercise among the world-wide people. Diabetes management is all about changing in food
habits, encouraging physical activities and learning self-management education. It is to note
that be aware of self-management activities during diabetes is of utmost importance. It
includes managing self through making use of Chronic Care Model that improves the
knowledge of patients regarding the disease and result in better clinical outcomes of the
condition like lower costs of disease management, lower body weight, improved life quality,
lower cost of treatment and finally, healthy coping with the disease.

4COMMUNITY TEACHING PLAN: TEACHING EXPERIENCE PAPER
It is to mention that the community that has been targeted for the very teaching plan
has been characterised by the minority groups who have very restricted amount or level of
access to the quality health care centres and providers and at the same time, have financial
constraints, which impede the effective management of the disease with medication. With the
help of self-management education, which is coupled with knowledge about exercise and
nutrition would be of a great help. It would help in alleviating the health issues of the chosen
community.
Evaluation of the Teaching Experience
The session took place in a transitional care facility centre, which was set up well for
ensuring smooth interaction in between the speaker and the community members. There
were a total of 35 members with age range from 17 to 70 years in the training session and
everyone was interested in the session.
PowerPoint presentation of 15 minutes was used for delivering the information to the
individuals. It included- a) patient self-management, b) basic understanding of diabetes by the
evaluation of glucose levels, c) understanding of diabetes type, d) monitoring of blood
glucose level, e) nutrition education and f) suggestions on physical activity. It was visually
appealing and was very easy to understand by everyone. It also reduced the occurrence of
errors, which would have been taken place otherwise while oral presentation. The entire
session took 40 minutes and majority of the other parts of the teaching experience was
dedicated towards answering members’ questions and queries.
All the members were given with pamphlets were the key areas of discussion were
highlighted so that everyone can get an idea about the same. There was a significant level of
interaction between the members and the educators, which was a good and motivating sign.
Every issue raised by the members were addressed well so that all their concerns regarding

5COMMUNITY TEACHING PLAN: TEACHING EXPERIENCE PAPER
diabetes could be resolved. Educator also shared his own experience as a caregiver for a
family member suffering from diabetes.
It is also to mention that in the session, there was a very detailed demonstration where
the members were asked to take part in voluntary blood glucose tests that were performed by
them after the demonstration by the present team of nursing. High concentration was paid on
the vitality of nutrition and exercise in the process of helping the patients to cope up with
diabetes in effective manner. Also, the team gave them nutrition advice keeping in minds
their incomes and medicine accessibility.
It was observed that unlike the ones who depended on management methods, the
patients who used the drugs such as insulin were more concerned with their dietary
interventions. The members also requested for a sample of nutritional plans and those plans
were provided to them by the team.
Community Response to Teaching
It can be said that the response of the community to the teaching was quite positive.
The members were very receptive to the presentation and were found to be very engaged in
the topic. Some of the members were shocked with the statistics that were presented in the
presentation and they demonstrated their keen interest to change their unhealthy habits. There
were many questions arising like- “when can I see improvement in my health after changing
my food habits?”, “where else can I find more information on better food choices?”, “Is these
exercise enough to manage my diabetes or shall I hire a trainer for myself?”. All the
responses were very motivating.

6COMMUNITY TEACHING PLAN: TEACHING EXPERIENCE PAPER
By the end of the presentation, we found that the members were choosing healthy
snacks instead of unhealthy ones and this demonstrates that their understandings about the
presented risk factors like high fat content foods and sugary drinks etc. are improved.
Areas of Strengths and Improvements
The noted strength was that the communication was very open, honest and easy in
between the educator and the community members. The presentation was also very easy to
understand by everyone present in the session. It addressed all the important topics and risk
factors associated with diabetes. There were cold drinks and chips too, which were
distributed to the community members and that made teaching about the sugar content on the
beverages and unhealthy food easier. It is also to mention that there was many opportunities
for knowledge and education in the session. Although the location was big and there were
quite a number of members, still, everyone was comfortable to ask their questions and solve
their queries. They liked the concept of providing snacks by the end of the presentation as it
worked as a motivating factor for them for staying engaged in the whole session. Also, there
was a high level of interaction between the members and the educators, which was a good
and motivating sign. Much time was dedicated for each of the topics and it was ensured that
all the concerns of the community members regarding diabetes and type 2 diabetes are
addressed.
However, there were some areas of weaknesses found. The very first was the
language barrier. As I am not a native of this country, I have a strong accent. Sometimes, I
felt that some of the community members are struggling to understand what I was saying for
my strong accent. With the same, I also found myself quite nervous in certain parts while
taking during the starting of the session I the group was quite big and I feel nervous during

7COMMUNITY TEACHING PLAN: TEACHING EXPERIENCE PAPER
public speaking sometimes. However, with the passage of time, it became normal for me and
the overall session was great.
Conclusion
Hence, from the overall analysis of everything, it is to conclude that diabetes is a very
serious chronic condition prevailing globally, especially in America. Its prevalence is likely
to increase if proper management and treatment are not done. Not only the health
professionals are responsible for the same, individuals too should look after their food intake
and life style so as to prevent the risk of diabetes from taking place. The session has
experienced high rated of success in the process of establishment of effective and affordable
plans of diabetes management for the patients, especially in the disadvantaged communities.
All their doubts and concerns about diabetes were cleared well by the educators to ensure
effective session.

8COMMUNITY TEACHING PLAN: TEACHING EXPERIENCE PAPER
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Adepoju, O. E., Bolin, J. N., Phillips, C. D., Zhao, H., Ohsfeldt, R. L., McMaughan, D. K., ...
& Forjuoh, S. N. (2014). Effects of diabetes self-management programs on time-to-
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https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4009353/
American Diabetes Association. (2016). Standards of medical care in diabetes—2016
abridged for primary care providers. Clinical diabetes: a publication of the American
Diabetes Association, 34(1), 3. Retrieved from:
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Blecker, S., Park, H., & Katz, S. D. (2016). Association of HbA1c with hospitalization and
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https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s12872-016-0275-6
Centers for Disease Control (CDC). (2018). Prevalence of Both Diagnosed and Undiagnosed
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9COMMUNITY TEACHING PLAN: TEACHING EXPERIENCE PAPER
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