Community Based Educational Plan

Introduction

After the Affordable Care Act of 2010, there was an intentional realignment in nursing according to which all the healthcare related processes now have to be centered on the patient’s needs. Moreover, there is the current demand to make sure that patients are a part of the treatment process with a constructive communication exchange between them and the caregivers (Goldsmith, 2015). There is also a primary goal of ensuring that the medical services and information have more reach and the healthcare is more inclusive to satisfy the patients (Institute of Medicine (U.S.), 2012). This requires that nurses and other healthcare workers take their services to where the patients are, and that is in the community. In guaranteeing that there is the improved access and effectiveness of the healthcare services, communication forms a platform where the caregivers can stimulate the community to make healthy choices in their lives. Taking the education plan to the community is also in line with the ambition of the Healthy People 2020 vision which intends to ascertain there is an improved primary level care through influencing the behaviors of the population at different environmental settings (ODPHP, 2016). In responding to these demands, this paper targets at forming a community-based education plan aimed at sensitizing people to the benefits of being actively involved in their treatment process.

Rationale

The goal of this plan is to improve the understanding of the community of being an active party to the treatment procedure. In the Health People 2020, the “Educational and Community-Based Programs” forms a crucial variable that will help in the development of the healthcare sector through availing services in non-traditional centers and in different ways (ODPHP, 2016). This not only helps in making the primary level care better but also cautions the sector from secondary level care expenses. One of the primary goals is to ensure that any treatment process in the community is a team-based engagement in which the patient is fully aware of his or her role. Another aim is to change the public attitude to the treatment process to attain a positive result with the patient always being an active party. However, it is a common occurrence that the public feels the treatment process is solely the responsibility of the concerned caregiver. However, if the purpose of availing the patient-centered care as envisaged in both the Affordable Care Act and Health People 2020 is to be attained, there is the need to change this attitude among the ordinary people. Therefore, there is the necessity to attract them to learning the crucial information needed in realigning the treatment process to a patient-centered process.

Objectives

• To sensitize the public on the different ways they can be fully involved in the treatment process;
• To help the public identify the benefits of being a part of the treatment;
• To educate the public on how to evaluate and influence the process of treatment their caregiver is taking them through.

Education Plan

The education plan presentation will be conducted in the town hall as in the most centralized venue to many communities surrounding the town. This will help in ascertaining that the plan will be beneficial to as many community members as possible. Initially, the sensitization of education will be a one-day activity but may be continued as outlined below. It will include a quick survey where the participants will indicate the areas where they need to be elaborated an undertaking that will be scheduled later. Basically, the first main part of the plan presupposes the implementation of the following constituents: induction, demonstration, question-answer, and empowerment sessions.

Induction Session

At this stage, the major task will be educating the public on the importance of being actively involved in the treatment process to make sure that all the attendees are fully aware of the evident benefits of participating in it. This is useful as a more informed patient is better placed to avail the crucial treatment information that helps in shaping the most appropriate approach to medical intervention (Institute of Medicine (U.S.), 2012). Moreover, better awareness assists a patient in seeking help on their own in the right and timely manner (Goldsmith, 2015). Thus, they can be helped in the primary level care, which is a goal of the Affordable Care Act. Besides, the due diligence will be applied to make the information accessible in the most simplistic way possible to enhance the comprehensive understanding of the public. Under this session, the participant will be given an evaluation paper where they will indicate the areas that need more explanation at a later stage.

Demonstration Session

Here the attendees will be shown the professional presentation on what a proper engagement between a patient and caregiver should look like ideally. This will be accompanied by a Power Point visual presentation to enhance the perception of the public. The intention at this point will be to demonstrate the multiple potential benefits of the treatment process when the patient is fully and actively involved.

Question-Answer Session

The primary undertaking in this session will be to respond to as many questions as possible from the public. This will be the session where the clarification of associative issues in different patient-caregiver interactions will be handled and clarified. This will also be the part of the plan where practical benefits of patients’ active involvement will be evident through the detailed illustration of the patient advantages as the questions that the public will ask will predominantly be based on these issues.

Empowerment Session

The objective of this session will be to familiarize the public more closely with the best practices that the practitioners should but do not always emulate while engaging with the patient. Moreover, the public will also be educated on the best way to start to engage with their caregivers to ensure a more fruitful result for themselves. Besides, it will be in this section that the community members will be taught about their rights and obligations in the treatment process. Finally, this session will also form the end of the education plan after which the evaluation papers will be collected.

With the aim of the plan being changing the attitude of the public to the treatment process, a Feedback analysis will be performed to ensure that the areas that need more clarification are identified and further developed. Then the next date of the meeting will be agreed upon with the close collaboration with the community representatives and everyone interested, at which all areas of concern will be handled or explained in more detail. Consequently, this will be in line with the goal of Health People 2020 intending to guarantee health improvement through a more informed public approach (ODPHP, 2016). Besides, paying attention to these areas will be useful in ensuring that the education plan will help everyone thus improving inclusivity in the town’s health care as envisaged in the Affordable Care Act.

Conclusion

It is evident that communication plays a crucial role in the healthcare sector since it forms the basis for a constructive engagement of the caregivers and the patients. Moreover, it is obvious that a community-based education plan forms a good platform for enhancing the healthcare’s capacity to guarantee a more improved primary level care through empowering the public on making the necessary realignments. It is also apparent that with the community-based education, it is possible to change the detrimental neglectful attitude in the public that sometimes hinders the ability of the caregivers to avail a patient- centered treatment plan more efficiently. Over and above, no doubt that the utilization of this community-based education plan will empower the township community into being actively involved in the treatment process thus helping in realigning the healthcare services availed to conform to the demand of being patient centered.