The Health Teaching Plan

General Objective:

Learning Content Strategy Strategy Time Venue Resources Evaluation

A health teaching plan may emphasize a phase of the behavior- change process that is related to
the family’s health problems. The plan may also follow the sequence of this process from pretraining to
the continued performance of a behavior that helps resolve a health problem. The written teaching plan
represents a package of educational services provided to the family.

The process of generating a teaching plan helps the nurse recognizes and use methods of
learning that involve the family as an active participant. The plan should include a lot of specific actions
or abilities that the family may perform at intervals during and at the end of the educational
intervention. Teaching plan help nurses clarify what the family should be able to do when the
educational intervention is completed.

Assessing Learning Needs

The assessment of learning needs is important in developing health teaching plan for families. This
process involves answering five questions:

1. What are the characteristics and learning capabilities of the family?

2. What are the learner’s needs for health promotion, risk reduction, or health problems?

3. What does the person already know and what skills can the person already perform that are
relevant to the health needs?

4. Is the learner motivated to change any unhealthy behaviors?

5. What are the barriers to and facilitators of health behavior change?

Parts of the Health Teaching Plan

A. Learning Goals
Learning goals are best established through the individual and the nurse working together. These goals
reflect the health behavior or health status change that the person will have achieved by the end of an
educational intervention.

B. Learning Objectives

Learning objectives indicate the steps to be taken by the individual toward meeting the learning goal
and may involve the development of knowledge, skill, or change in attitude. Objectives are most useful
when stated in behavioral terms and when they contain the following components: the learner and a
precise action verb that indicates what the learner should be able to do, the conditions under which the
task is performed, and the specific level of performance expected (Bastable & Sculco, 1997). Learning
objectives guide the selection of content and methods and help narrow the focus of a teaching plan to
more achievable steps; they also aid in getting standards of performance and suggesting evaluation
strategies.

Determining Expected Learning Outcomes

To determine the expected learning outcomes of a health education intervention, the nurse answers the
following questions:

1. What are the participants’ learning goals?

2. What must the learner know, do, and believe to progress through the behavior-change process?

C. Content

To select appropriate content for a health education program, the nurse considers what information,
skills, and attitudes need to be taught, and the level of learning to be achieved.

Three Domains of Learning

Content is commonly divided into three domains: (1) cognitive, (2) psychomotor, and (3) affective.
Cognitive learning refers to the development of new facts or concepts, building on or applying
knowledge to new situations. Psychomotor learning involves developing physical skills from simple to
complex actions. Affective learning alludes to the recognition of values, religious, and spiritual beliefs,
family interaction patterns and relationships, and personal attitudes that affect decisions and problem-
solving progress.

To learn or change a health behavior, a person may need to acquire new information, practice
some physical techniques, and clarify the ways in which the new behavior may affect relationships with
others. The nurse’s role is to select a combination of content from the three domains that is appropriate
to meet the behavioral objective. To find samples of content for a teaching plan, the nurse researches
resources materials, such as books, teaching guides, journal articles, pamphlets, and flyers printed by
nonprofit agencies and professional organizations. The nurse should be careful about using materials
with technical vocabulary that is too complex for the person or group.

Level of Learning
The level of learning to be achieved depends on how the nurse anticipates the content will be used.
Bloom’s taxonomy (1969) is widely accepted as the standard tool for arranging levels of learning
objectives according to type and complexity 9Bastable & Sculco, 1997). For example, in the cognitive
domain, levels of learning include the following:

 Knowledge: person recalls facts and the concept

 Comprehension: person understands the meaning of the concept

 Application: person uses the concept

 Synthesis: person integrates the concept with other learning

 Evaluation: person judges or compares the concept

When preparing a teaching plan, then nurse differentiates between information the individual
must know and information considered helpful to know to develop appropriate learning objectives. This
process provides cues to the nurse for planning effective strategies and methods selected should involve
the individuals in more active application and analysis of the content.

D. Learning Strategies

Designing the learning strategies for an educational intervention means selecting the methods and tools
and structuring the sequence of activities. The teaching plan to this point provides the foundation on
which to base the activity selection and sequence. The following questions should guide the design of
learning strategies:

1. What are some basic considerations for selecting teaching methods?

2. How does the nurse establish and maintain a learning climate?

3. What actions can the nurse perform to increase the effectiveness of the learning methods?

4. What are the appropriate methods for each learning domain?

5. What methods tent to promote behavior change?

Considerations for Selecting Methods

First, the nurse considers promoting an environment and using methods that foster self-directed
learning, which implies that the individual develops skills in assessing learning needs and deciding how
to proceed through the learning process. The self- directed learner can participate in establishing
standards of performance and is gradually able to monitor progress. Adult learners must decide whether
they want control or whether they prefer to relinquish the right to self-direction (Coates, 1999). Greater
learning is usually achieved when the learner is an active participant in the learning process.
 Taking into consideration the characteristics of the family and its members (developmental
stage, age, and knowledge of the topic), the nurse selects teaching methods that best support the goals
and theme of the educational program. The flow or order of content should proceed from simple ideas
and skills to the more complex concepts, from known material toward the lesser known data. The nurse
must be sensitive to the energy level and anxiety of the family when presenting content that either
requires strong concentration or causes unwanted anxiety.

Learning Climate

The nurse addresses several activities when seeking to establish an environment that is conducive to
health behavior change. The first activity is creating a sense of preparedness and organization by
providing appropriate physical facilities with adequate furnishings and suitable audiovisual materials and
handouts. Even the instructor’s appearance will lend credibility or distraction to the presentation.

The second activity involves anticipating the needs of the group and communicating information
about the schedule. This action alleviates the group’s apprehension and makes them more comfortable
in the learning situation.

The third activity focuses on the nurse’s assessment of the individual and group learning needs,
possibly through questions and dialog with the group. Members of the group must believe that the
program will be beneficial and relevant that the program will be beneficial and relevant to their
situations. The instructor should watch for and reinforce signs of motivation to participate in the
experience.

Fourth, with a positive learning climate established, the nurse seeks to maintain a high level of
motivation, a sense of individualized attention, and ongoing progression. As a reality check, the nurse
might ask for periodic feedback from the group about the effectiveness of the program and its relevance
to group needs.

Finally, the nurse works with the group to maintain the learning climate. This process involves
observing group interactions, helping individuals to participate, intervening to help the group deal with
controlling its members, and remaining cognizant of nay dynamics in the group process that will
facilitate or inhibit learning.

Teaching for Each Learning Domain

As mentioned, teaching is directed toward one or more of three learning domains: (1) cognitive, (2)
psychomotor, and (3) affective. Methodologies appropriate for cognitive instruction include lectures,
programmed instruction, simulations, and games, computer-assisted programs, modules, projects, and
role-playing sessions. These methods support teaching that is focused on transmitting information and
changing behaviors as a result of greater mental understanding.

Teaching psychomotor skills is directed toward the student gaining physical skills to perform
procedures treatments or health behaviors independently. Demonstrations, drill and practice times,
games, role- playing exercises, and peer teaching represent effective modes for teaching psychomotor
skills.

Learning in the affective domain involves a change in attitudes or emotions that will affect
behaviors. Suggested teaching methods include discussion, simulations, role playing, and field
experiences (Redman, 1997).

The nurse can evaluate the effectiveness of teaching and learning in all domains through the use
of written or oral testing, demonstrations, observation, self- reports, and self-monitoring. Teaching
methods for one domain may overlap the teaching methods for another domain.

Format of the Health Teaching Plan