The provision of quality healthcare to the public lies not only within the precincts of healthcare facilities. At health facilities, health issues are addressed through treatment and management. Community health education programs help to inform the public on ways of maintaining their health. Community health programs seek to prevent the occurrence of diseases. Thus, they are useful in improving healthcare mainly through preventive means. Education of the public on ways that they can take care of their health helps increase the health literacy of a country ( Batterham, Hawkins, Collins, Buchbinder, and Osborne, 2016) . Research has shown existent inadequacies in community health workers, whereby the public does not receive excellent health training (Scott et al., 2018). It is therefore prudent that educational institutions involved in training nurses and health community workers tailor excellent courses that can bridge this gap.
For students taking an undergraduate degree in community health nursing, I am proposing a community health course to be offered in the final year of study. The course will help to prepare the students in preparation for the discharge of their duties upon graduation. The course has been developed after assessing the health challenges facing most communities in the US. The following topics and content form the course outline for this unit:
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Chronic diseases. The prevalence of chronic diseases, such as diabetes and hypertension will be addressed. Ways of preventing the occurrence of the diseases will be addressed. Chronic disease management will also be taught.
Physical activity and nutrition. The importance of physical activities in disease prevention and healthy nutritional habits will be covered. Obesity prevention will be addressed.
Stress management. Ways of managing stresses to prevent the development of depressive conditions will be covered. Mental illness, behavioral health injury, and violence prevention will also be taught.
Substance and drug abuse. Substance and drug addiction management. Areas covered include smoking cessation and alcohol addiction.
Use of technology in community health education programs. Content creation and the use of technological means such as social media platforms and podcasts will be covered. The advantages of the use of technology, such as reaching a bigger audience, will be taught.
The contents of the course will be covered in one-hour class lectures. A total of 35 hours will be used to cover the contents of the course throughout the semester. Two hours per week will be allocated to lectures and one hour for discussions. Thus, a total of three hours per week will be used to cover the course.
Excellence in the classroom is not dependent on the grades at the end of the course only. Comprehension of the course contents during the teaching process is essential. Consequently, to evaluate the success of the course, formative evaluation tools will be used. Formative evaluation tools are useful in determining whether students are grasping the contents of the course during the training to improve the teaching techniques. Formative evaluation tools can also form the basis of readjusting the contents of a course ( Goldfarb and Morrison, 2014). Some of the formative evaluation tools that will be used are discussions and entrance and exit slips. Research has shown that as individuals get older, the use of teaching strategies that involve them are more effective than dictating or instructional strategies ( Czaja and Sharit, 2016) . Consequently, class discussions will be adopted in the teaching of the course to help identify students who comprehend and those that do not understand the topics. Entrance and exit slips will be used at the beginning and end of the lectures to assess the comprehension of the students on a particular topic before and after the lectures. Entry and exit tickets are advantageous by ensuring the participation of all students and providing crucial feedback that can guide teaching decisions. The exit slips will be phrased as metacognitive questions and issued in card form at the end of the classes.
Formative Assessment using Exit Card
| Metacognitive Question | Feedback |
| What did you learn in today’s session? | |
| What questions do you still have concerning this topic? | |
| How can you apply the knowledge learned in today's session? | |
| What are your suggestions on how today’s topic could have been improved? |
References
Batterham, R. W., Hawkins, M., Collins, P. A., Buchbinder, R., & Osborne, R. H. (2016). Health literacy: applying current concepts to improve health services and reduce health inequalities. Public health , 132 , 3-12.
Czaja, S. J., & Sharit, J. (2016). Designing training and instructional programs for older adults . CRC Press.
Goldfarb, S., & Morrison, G. (2014). Continuous curricular feedback: a formative evaluation approach to curricular improvement. Academic Medicine , 89 (2), 264-269.
Scott, K., Beckham, S. W., Gross, M., Pariyo, G., Rao, K. D., Cometto, G., & Perry, H. B. (2018). What do we know about community-based health worker programs? A systematic review of existing reviews on community health workers. Human resources for health , 16 (1), 39.
