Community Teaching Plan: Teaching Experience Paper
Summary
In the current times, obesity in children has become a major problem that is affecting the American population. Nursing research has revealed that both parents and children lack knowledge about the dangers associated with obesity in their lives despite the fact that obesity not only affects their physical fitness but also have adverse effects which touch on their emotional health and their overall performance. Lack of self-esteem and bullying are examples of problems which overweight children are likely to encounter when associating with other in schools and other social places. Things get worse as the children continue to grow with their obese status, and this exposes them to a number health issues in future. These are health problems which can be prevented when there are young if well-selected weight-loss programs are used (Williams, 2012). The question is; who is responsible for checking and managing children’s body weight to prevent them from becoming obese?
Epidemiological rationale
Responding to these high cases of obesity will require that the members of the community to be introduced to the parameters they should monitor to detect early cases of obesity in children. This includes proper dieting and monitoring of their body mass index. Seeking answers as to whether the lifestyles of parents, which includes their eating habits, have any contribution to the development of overweight in children will help in designing training programs for the parents to elaborate on the important of adopting healthy lifestyles that are coupled with proper dieting.
The teaching question formulated in this case can be used in some health care programs that are meant for children. A good example of a program where the question can be used is the Women Infant Children program that is mandated to keep surveillance on the community’s nutrition health with great attention to children and women (United States Department of Agriculture Food and Nutrition Service, 2014). It is important to understand that the American population is aging, and this trend is very threatening. To maintain a healthy and working nation, it is very important that the health care sector introduces effective measures that will help manage body weight to prevent chronic diseases which might show up in the future. This will affect the working population, and the productivity of the economy will be seen to decrease to threatening levels. Parents are meant to be role models to their children in all virtues of life, and thus parents using healthy lifestyles free from obese cases will pass this to their children hence the future of children in matters of body weight is very secure.
Research has indicated that1/3 of the children’s population is obese. This is a problem that has raised an alarm in the nursing sector, and interventions are always being invited to help control this trend (Williams, 2012). This indicates that parents have a role in determining whether a child becomes obsess or not. This influence is attached to the feeding habits that parents use on their children and activities the children are subjected to.
Evaluation of teaching experience
The findings of the teaching experience indicate that obese children and parents are determined to have a large body size and their body fat percentage happens to be exaggerated. It is also determined that parents in the healthy category have their BMI indexes within the normal ranges. The BMI indexes of overweight parents are determined to fall in the obese range. There is matching evidenced that connect the behaviors of obese children with the lifestyles observed in their families. In the healthy families, the same correlation is observed connecting the parents and their children.
It is determined that parents who involve unhealthy lifestyles have the capabilities of passing these attribute to their children as they happen to be their role models. This will see their children adopting the unhealthy lifestyles which will increase their chances of becoming obese and victims of the health problems attached to obesity. It is revealed that the overweight population is not aware of the available strategies they can use to check for BMI and involving activities to help manage their body weights.
This information is very important in the nursing profession as it indicates the lack of necessary educational resources to help the population understand the various ways in which they can adopt healthy living to keep safe from obesity and associated health risks. Health care providers need to coach parents on the how to prevent childhood obesity by discussing with them the dangers in place and giving suggestions of suitable strategies to make sure that their young ones remain healthy at all (Morawska & West,2012). This information can also be used to change the current weight management interventions if they are determined to generate the required results within this population. The same information can also be used to come up with new strategies that will help the entire population to effectively manage their body weight, thus keep them healthy right from childhood to adulthood.
Community Response to Teaching
Those determined to be obese in this teaching plan confirmed to lack information on the dangers of being obese and how they can prevent it. They confirmed to have heard about it but did not take interest due to lack of knowledge and details of how to go about it. Their responses indicate that the public health sector has a role in facilitating training programs to the communities to introduce to the recommended methods that they can use to remain healthy and free from obesity.
Responses from members of the community indicate the need for outreach programs to teach them about the benefits of healthy lifestyles and eating as a sure way to control obesity in the population. This will also keep them safe from the acquisition of other chronic conditions that emerge in later stages of obesity. It is also important that public health sector makes it known to the community that it is a personal responsibility to take good care of one’s health by involving activities and lifestyles that are beneficial to their bodies.
Areas of strengths and areas of improvement
It is noted that the public health sector has already introduced some educational resources which the members of the community can access to get more information about obesity and certain measures they can involve to keep safe. The only weakness with the resources is that they are only available in health care facilities from where the members of the community can access them from. There is a need to enhance access to these resources to make sure that people get sufficient information about obesity while still at their homesteads. Media is a good platform that public health sector should use to increase obesity awareness in the community.
References:
Morawska, A., & West, F. (2012). Do parents of obese children use ineffective parenting
strategies? Journal of Child Health Care, 17(4), 375-386. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1367493512462263
United States Department of Agriculture Food and Nutrition Service. (2014).
http://www.fns.usda.gov/wic/women-infants-and-children-wic
Williams, N., Fournier, J., Coday, M., Richey, P., Tylavsky, F., & Hare, M. (2012, August).
Body esteem, peer difficulties and perceptions of physical health in overweight and obese urban children aged 5 to 7 years. Child: Care, Health and Development, 39(6), 825-834. http://dx.doi.org/DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2214.2012.01401
