COPD Lesson Plan

Learning Goals

The development of Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) can significantly impact the quality of life for patients who have it. Its characteristic symptoms include shortness of breath, coughing, wheezing, fatigue, etc. (Lareau, Fahy, Meek, & Wang, 2019). Learning goals for the lesson plan will focus therefore on prevention, treatment, and lifestyle changes: 1) For students to understand what COPD is and how it is caused (one-week timeframe), 2) for students to understand the treatments for COPD (two-week timeframe), and 3) for students to understand the necessary lifestyle changes to improve quality of life (three-week timeframe). Measurements for goals are discussed in the evaluation section.

Teaching Plan

Five important factors of the quality improvement teaching plan include the disease, risk factors, signs/symptoms, complications, and discharge instructions. The main risk factors for COPD are irritants, especially first and secondhand cigarette smoke (COPD, 2020). The symptoms include coughing, wheezing, shortness of breath, etc. The main complications involve the increased frequency of colds and respiratory infections (COPD, 2020). Over time, other symptoms like lower extremity swelling, weight loss, and low muscle endurance can occur (COPD. 2020). Discharge instructions focus mostly on lifestyle changes, as there is no cure for COPD. Treatment focuses on symptom relief and slowing the disease’s progress (COPD, 2020). Quitting smoking, increasing exercise, and overall health improvement are important steps.

Learner Assessment

The three important elements of learner assessment are readiness, learning preferences, and current knowledge. Learner readiness can be assessed learning about social barriers to or facilitators of disease instruction (e.g. work schedules, transportation, etc.). Learning preferences can be assessed by asking learners how they best learn. And current knowledge can be assessed by asking questions about the disease prior to instructions.

Teaching Methods

Various teaching methods will be employed. There will be strong visual elements to help promote knowledge growth, including videos, images of the disease and its progress, etc. We will also have group discussions to encourage social learning and hand out take-home materials so that the information can be retained better and referenced later.

Cultural Considerations

Purnell’s (2002) model of cultural competence identifies 12 cultural domains. These can affect learning. The domain of heritage might include different sociopolitical backgrounds with varying levels of health and education. The domain of communication can influence how people learn best. Family roles and organization, as well as workforce issues, can influence exposure to educational opportunities. Biocultural ecology can influence genes and therefore health, which might influence what a person is interested in learning about. High-risk behaviors (e.g. tobacco) certainly influence how people value education. Nutrition affects health literacy. Pregnancy and childbearing, as well as death rituals, set certain standards and expectations. Spirituality can influence the value we place on medical science. Finally, the domains of health care practices and practitioners can influence the trust placed in healthcare educators.

Evaluation & Documentation

The outcomes of learning can be evaluated by examining learner retention. This can be done by asking, either verbally or via written assignment, important questions about COPD’s causes, symptomology, treatment, etc. Lifestyle changes can also be measured by inquiring about positive steps that students have taken to improve existing COPD/decrease the chance of acquiring COPD. All the outcomes can be carefully documented and retained so that there are records of them.

References

COPD. (2020). NIH. Retrieved from https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health-topics/copd

Lareau, S.C., Fahy, B., Meek, P. & Wang, A. (2019). Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). American Thoracic Society Patient Education Information Series. Retrieved from https://www.thoracic.org/patients/patient-resources/resources/copd-intro.pdf

Purnell, L. (2002). The Purnell model for cultural competence. Journal of Transcultural Nursing, 13(3), 193-196.