Prenatal Teaching Plan
Ruiz-Mirazo, Lopez-Yarto, and McDonald (2012) assert that the fundamental reason for pre-natal care is to prevent any complications that may arise in the process of giving birth. It is concerned with keeping both the baby and the mom in a fit and healthy condition and henceforth reduce the strains that may accompany the pregnancy. It is recommendable for all pregnant women to take maximum care and precaution during the pregnancy period so as to positively influence the outcome of their pregnancy (Perry, et al., 2014). The aim of this teaching plan is to guide Fayola who is experiencing some pregnancy strains such as insufficient care and even gestational diabetes. Although Fayola is married to a medic and has been visiting a dietician, she is not in a fit condition as it would be recommended during the pregnancy period. This may be attributed to lack of personal guidance on the benefits of prenatal care. Therefore, this exposition majors on guiding Fayola on the advantages of prenatal care and ensuring that she makes good choices during her pregnancy which will influence her during gestation and after giving birth.
Client’s Stage of Growth and Development
As described in the case study, Fayola is a young Nigerian immigrant whose English is not good, and she is shy. Her condition attributes to the assertion that she is not much free to interact with people who can give her guidance on prenatal care. Besides, her husband is well acquainted with medicine thus can offer her the necessary information towards antenatal care but this is not the case since he works long hours leaving Fayola alone. Due to perhaps lack of the ideal monitoring and information, the client has strains in regards to gestational diabetes and has been missing some of her weekly blood glucose entries. An issue of concern in this plan is whether the behavioral response of Fayola is intertwined with her age or it is just but a mere character that she possess.
The development psychology comes on hand to answer this issue of concern. Peet and Hartwick (2015) state that development psychology aims at understanding and explaining behaviors of a person throughout their lifespan. The client can be well described by learning theory which is one of the development approaches. In regards to behavioral perspective, human beings can be described regarding the environmental influences. John Watson and Skinner, some of the behaviorists, suggest that the process of learning in a person’s life occurs through association and reinforcement (Malone, 2014). Therefore, the client is in a position to learn because, at this development stage of her life, she does not have access to associates who can guide her and perhaps people to help reinforce the information given by the nutritionists and other health care personnel.
Learning Objectives
Fayola should be entitled to intense physical health education so as to regain a healthy state during her pregnancy period. The importance of good nutrition and disease prevention should be among the core issues that the client should be educated about. Perry, et al. (2014) state that the gestation diabetes may negatively impact on the client health thus she should be informed of the consequences of her condition to her pregnancy. Otherwise, the ideal nutrition and medication should be recommended and reinforced as pointed out in the learning theory so as to overcome this development stage of the client (Perry, et al., 2014). Similarly, the client should be exposed to psychological education aimed at doing away with the shyness of the customer and ensuring that she can associate freely with other people regardless of her little eloquence in English.
The primary objective intended is to inform Fayola on how to avoid the strains experienced during her pregnancy. Similarly, she should be guided on associating with people and seeking guidance and advice in regards to her condition. This is based on the case study where it is evident that she is lonely since she has no mentioned friends because of her poor language command and her shyness. Similarly, her husband has less time to interact with her thus she should be advised on how to interact and make new friends. The advancement of the client founded on the objectives can be measured through monitoring her blood glucose level on whether it is as expected or not. These objectives can be achievable through directing the client to the ideal expertise to deal with her condition. A psychologist would be one of the best people to recommend the client to so as to overcome her shyness and raise her esteem even though she is not eloquent in English. On the other hand, a medical service provider is necessary to guide the client on the benefits of adhering to the prenatal health care recommendations such as good diet and taking the appropriate medication (Perry et al., 2014). These objectives should be set within a maximum time limit of two weeks so as to ensure the blood glucose of the client drops to at least 11.1 mmol/l, which is recommendable.
Priority Education Content
The gestation diabetes is one of the conditions that the client should be guided on doing away with to have good pregnancy outcomes. The intent of treating blood glucose levels is to keep the levels of blood sugar within a normal range (Perry, et al., 2014). As per the case study, the client blood glucose readings over the weekend were between 16-18 mmol, which are not recommendable. Therefore, the priority education content should be based on reinforcing the nutritionist’s recommendation to the client which possibly was taking diabetes medicine, balancing food with activities and living a healthy lifestyle (Perry et al., 2014). Maintaining the blood glucose at a medium level is necessary for the prevention of development of further complications that may arise with the condition. The content should include the importance of filling all the blood glucose diary entries as a way of monitoring the progress of the client’s health.
Teaching Strategies
There are a variety of ways to stimulate discussion with the client. However, using a friendly approach would be the best way to understand the status of the client and the reason as to why she is not adhering to the expected prenatal care (Perry et al., 2014). It is important to utilize the active learning strategy to ensure that the client learns and puts into practice what has been taught. The active learning strategy allows the learner to actively participate in the education process through talking and listening while reflecting on their real life situation so as to apply the learned aspects (Keengwe & Onchwari, 2015). Integrating technology is another strategy that I would use in teaching the client on the importance of prenatal care.
As per the case study, it is indisputable that the client does not have friends or people to talk about her condition. Her spouse spends most of his time at the job, and the client’s shyness and poor eloquence in English reduce her chances of opening up to people about her condition. Active learning is an ideal strategy to use in this situation since as it has been previously pointed out in the development theory, associating with other people and reinforcement are the core ways of improving the status of the client (Keengwe & Onchwari, 2015). Since the client needs a person to talk to openly, this strategy will give me an ample time to interact with the customer and ensure that she applies what she has been taught to her prenatal situation. Similarly, use of integration of technology will likely work since the client is shy and does not have good language command (Keengwe & Onchwari, 2015). Therefore, the socio-cultural environment of the client allows the use of this strategy since most of the time she is alone. This approach will overcome these challenges, hence, positive progress is likely to be achieved. The progress of the client’s general health regarding achieving a recommendable blood glucose level will be one of the ways of evaluating whether the client has understood the education content presented. Adhering to the dietician’s recommendations and frequently visiting the clinic would be another way of evaluating whether the training material directed at the client has made any positive changes (Ruiz-Mirazo, Lopez-Yarto, & McDonald, 2012).
Conclusion
In essence, establishing a close contact with the client is the best way of understanding her challenges and recommending the new direction for her to take. As from the case study, the client is facing prenatal challenges due to lack of the ideal attention from her husband and other medical service providers. Reinforcement of the teaching content will be of the essence in ensuring the positive progress of the client. However, the education plan may face limitations such as an unexpected response from the client. It is vital to ensure that the active learning strategy used in this case goes a long way in ensuring a successful outcome for the patient and improved care.
References
Keengwe, J., & Onchwari, G. (2015). Handbook of research on active learning and the flipped classroom model in the digital age (1st ed.). Hershey, PA: Information science reference.
Malone, J. C. (2014). Did John B. Watson Really “Found” Behaviorism? The Behavior Analyst, 37(1), 1-12.
Perry, S.E., Hockenberry M.J., Lowdermilk, D. L., & Wilson, D. (2014). Maternal Child Nursing Care in Canada (1st ed.). Toronto: Elsevier.
Peet, R., & Hartwick, E. (2015). Theories of development: Contentions, arguments, alternatives (3rd ed.). New York: Guilford Publications.
Ruiz-Mirazo, E., Lopez-Yarto, M., & McDonald, S. D. (2012). Group prenatal care versus individual prenatal care: a systematic review and meta-analyses. Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology Canada, 34(3), 223-229.
