Discussion: The Art of Crafting Meaningful, 
Measurable Learning Objectives

In this Discussion, you gain experience in crafting learning objectives that are both meaningful to the learning activity and also measure the learning that is taking place. To begin, consider the following scenarios:

 

Scenario 1: In-service for nursing staff  

Orange City is a mid-sized town comprised mostly of elderly and retired Caucasian adults. Since the addition of a new highway, shopping mall, and various other small businesses, Orange City has seen a recent explosion of families moving into the area. Many of these families come from diverse backgrounds adding a new layer of cultural diversity to the city. Because the nurses at Orange City hospital have traditionally worked with the same type of clientele, many have been taken off guard when individuals deny certain health care measures due to religious or cultural beliefs. One day the nursing manager approaches you, the nurse educator, and asks if you could create an in-service that highlights the ways culture and religion can impact patient responses to medicine, preventative care, and treatment options.

 

Scenario 2: Patient training session

As a patient educator at an endocrinologist’s office, you have the important responsibility to educate patients on health management. The lead physician at your office explains that she would like to see all Type 1 and Type 2 insulin-dependent diabetes patients use the insulin pump instead of insulin injections. You know that many patients tend to shy away from the pump system because of initial discomforts and worries. However, you agree that the insulin pump helps patients to receive a steady basal rate into their system. The advantages of using the pump as a replication of the pancreas definitely outweigh the act of giving injections after food consumption. Now you must figure out how to communicate and motivate patients towards this way of thinking.

 

Scenario 3: Educational leadership course

As an experienced registered nurse and full-time faculty at Bay Area University, you know how important it is for nursing students to develop effective leadership skills. You also know that becoming a leader in the nursing profession involves the ability to effectively manage colleagues who initiate conflict in the workplace. In reading students’ reflections, you see that many note a level of discomfort in working with conflict-prone colleagues. You realize that you need to engage students in a learning activity that will increase their acumen in managing conflict situations in the workplace.

 

To prepare:

·         Reflect on this week’s Learning Resources, paying specific attention to the alignment between learning activities and learning objectives.

·         Review this week’s media, Crafting Learning Objectives, to examine an effective approach to crafting meaningful, measurable learning objectives.

 

 

·         Using your answers to the questions above, create learning objectives and a learning activity applicable to your scenario.

 

 

Posting Directions: When creating your post, use the title: “Learning activity for Scenario _____.”

 

Questions to be addressed in my paper:

 

1.    Select one of the scenarios above for your posting. Then, consider the following questions:

1. What are the learning needs illustrated in the scenario?
2. What meaningful learning objectives could you craft to address these learning needs?
3. How could you use the learning objectives to create an educational, learner-centered activity?
4. What type of activity might you create to help your learners achieve the learning objectives?
5. How can you use the learning objectives to measure if learning has taken place?

 

2.    A list of the meaningful, measureable learning objectives you constructed and a thorough description of your learning activity.

 

3.    Explain how this activity aligns to the learning objectives and justify how each of those objectives can be used to measure student, staff, or patient learning.

 

4.    Conclusion/Summary of The Art of Crafting Meaningful, 
Measurable Learning Objectives

 

Reminders:

1.      Put APA citations and references 2011 – 2016….

2.      Put headings on each addressed question.

 

 

Required Readings

Billings, D. M., & Halstead, J. A. (2016). Teaching in nursing: A guide for faculty (5th ed.). St. Louis, MO: Elsevier.

• Chapter 6, “An Introduction to Curriculum Development”

 

Chapter 6 consists of many examples educators can use to better understand the process of writing outcomes and competencies. [Review]

Candela, L. (2011). Taxonomies and critical thinking in curriculum design. In S. B. Keating (Ed.),Curriculum development and evaluation in nursing (2nd ed., pp. 71–86). New York, NY: Springer.

 

The connection between educational taxonomies and critical thinking to curriculum design is explored in Chapter 4. Taxonomies are identified as a way to develop and evaluate learning objectives. Critical thinking is then necessary to determine the degree to which the student engages with the content.

McKimm, J., & Swanwick, T. (2009). Setting learning objectives. British Journal of Hospital Medicine, 70(7), 406–409.

Retrieved from the Walden Library databases.

 

The relationship between learning outcomes and educational activities is emphasized in this article. For students to gain the most from their education and training, clinical teachers must be aware of the planning and delivery of educational activities.

Nemec, P. B., & Bussema, E. (2010). Learning objectives. Psychiatric Rehabilitation Journal, 33(4), 328–330.

Retrieved from the Walden Library databases.

 

This article provides an in-depth overview of learning objectives.

Noone, J. (2009). Teaching to the three apprenticeships: Designing learning activities for professional practice in an undergraduate curriculum. Journal of Nursing Education, 48(8), 468–471.

Retrieved from the Walden Library databases.

 

When managed effectively, apprenticeships can be a valuable learning experience. The author of this article shares a successful design of learning objectives and activities that effectively integrates apprenticeships into professional nursing.

Wittmann-Price, R. A., & Fasolka, B. J. (2010). Objectives and outcomes: The fundamental difference. Nursing Education Perspectives, 31(4), 233–236. 

Retrieved from the Walden Library databases.

 

The authors of this article identify the differences between educational objectives and outcomes. They support their discussion with historical explanations of each. At the end, they provide formats for developing outcomes.

 

Walden University. (n.d.b). Program outcomes. Retrieved November 27, 2012, from http://www.waldenu.edu/about/who-we-are/data/program-outcomes

 

Required Media

 

Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2012a). Crafting learning objectives. Baltimore, MD: Author.

 

The act of writing objectives can be both tedious and exhausting. Their construction, however, is crucial to the learning at hand. Among colleges, universities, and educators themselves, there is much debate about the format to use for learning objectives. This media introduces you to one specific format and also gives in-depth examples of how to write learning objectives that are both meaningful and measureable. You will use this format to create your learning objectives in this week’s Discussion.

 

Optional Resources

 

University of New Mexico School of Medicine, Teacher & Educational Development. (2005). Effective use of performance objectives for learning and assessment. Retrieved from http://ccoe.umdnj.edu/forms/EffectiveUseofLearningObjectives.pdf

 

 

University of Texas at San Antonio. (n.d.). Action verbs for writing learning objectives. Retrieved November 27, 2012, from http://provost.utsa.edu/vpaie/assessment/Academic_Programs/Action_verbs.pdf

 

 

 

 

The process of analyzing health policy involves explaining the primary relationship between different institutions, interest areas and concepts (Walt et al., 1994). It is essential in order to establish historical policies, their successes or failure and help in planning for the design and development of current and future policies. The ever dynamic nature of the policy environment makes policy analysis to look more complicated.

 

The design, development and adoption or implementation of any health policy is heavily dependent on the financial position of any governing institution (Walt et al., 1999). A health policy entails the management of disease or infection outbreaks and disease causing factors or conditions. In managing disease outbreaks, a ruling organization has to establish sufficient structures where patients will be taken care of or treated, ensure the availability of sufficient health experts and treatment instruments, create public awareness about the disease, including its symptom causal factors and put in place mechanisms that will help manage the spread of the disease or infection. In the management of disease causal factors, it is necessary to finance campaigns to foster effective environmental management mechanisms (Merriam et al., 2001). It is also necessary to specify the minimum conditions under which human activities will be carried out in order to enhance safety and health.

 

Congresswoman Moody has to understand that the state she represents lies on an international border which experiences multiple socioeconomic interactions. This is particularly dangerous considering that the area is highly populated. The fact that the area has many undocumented workers also means that they are highly vulnerable to experiencing inadequate access to health services. The conditions under which these individuals work does not make it any better. They are highly prone to contracting occupational health problems which are usually the most complicated kind of infections to deal with. Moody does not have the capacity to stop the activities that take place in her state since it will spark global controversy and even affect the economic outlook of her state. In addition, her limited Medicaid budget and rate of unemployment is depressing issues.

 

The first option Moody should consider is to look at the possibility of borrowing funds from one of the internal management departments to help ease the predicament that exists in the medical department. It is necessary to accept the existing condition and try to reason on how it could be solved rather than concentrating on past challenges that remain unsolved. Solving this first challenge will provide room for the developments that will lead to solving the rest of the problems.

 

The second option would be to welcome or introduce investors into the health sector within the state. They could help residents in the state by either offering affordable care services or through provision of an insurance policy.   They could still help with shipping patients to nearby health centers at subsidized costs or through provision of employment opportunities which will entitle the residents to some form of income that would enhance their upkeep.

 

The third option would be to make health insurance policy compulsory for all the residents in the state. This action will encourage more individuals to invest in the state, particularly in the insurance sector. The revenue accrued from this action would then be utilized in financing health management activities in the state.

 

Finally, public-private partnership should be encouraged, especially in the health fraternity within the state. Most workplaces that are found to contain difficult working conditions are forced to adopt and comply with health and safety legislations. Industries or business institutions within the state that have the ability to construct health care facilities and employ health workers should be encouraged to do it.

 

Evaluation of the mentioned options would involve creating a checklist or matrix that would rank each option using viability scores. The most viable alternative should be considered and implemented. Summative evaluation of options should also be carried out after implementing any of the options to find out if the overall goal would have been achieved.

 

Acquisition of funds by borrowing from sister departments would be good as it will only occur within the administration and does not raise public concern. However, this can interfere with the activities of the sister department from which the money is acquired. Investors can easily help to bring stability within the healthcare sector in the state. They will build hospitals, furnish them with necessary equipment and employ several experts to work in the hospitals. The only problem is that, the competition may creep in and lead to increase in treatment charges. Making health insurance policy compulsory will entitle all residents to fair and affordable healthcare services. The main undoing would be the influx of fraudsters. Public-private partnership results into sustainable solutions, however it involves lengthy procedures which may take more time to solve the problem.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Conduct research to address the following:

Requirements:

1. Calculate the 2006 all cause age-adjusted mortality rates for males and females for the United States using the direct and indirect method of age adjustment.
2. Calculate the 2006 all cause age-adjusted mortality rates for males and females for the state in which you live using the direct and indirect method of age adjustment.
3. Compare the calculated 2006 age-adjusted mortality rates in males and females between the United States and the state in which you live. Write a one line interpretation of the rate.

Your paper should:

• be 1-2 pages in length.
• properly cite research sources.
• show how you calculated your answers.
• be free of spelling and grammar errors.

Direct versus Indirect Method of Adjustment

Direct method – Assume that the observed population had the same distribution of characteristics as the reference population. Apply the experience of the observed population to the reference population. Direct age adjustment methods apply age specific rates or the experience from study populations to an age distribution from a reference population.             

           However, when age-specific rates are unavailable in the study populations, we use the indirect method of adjustment.            

Indirect method – Assume that the observed population had the experienceof the reference population.  Apply the experience of the reference population to the observed population. The indirect method uses the age specific rates from a reference population to derive the expected number of cases or deaths in the study populations.          

 

Discussion 1: Cardiovascular Alterations

At least once a year, the media report on a seemingly healthy teenage athlete collapsing during a sports game and dying of heart complications. These incidents continue to outline the importance of physical exams and health screenings for teenagers, especially those who play sports. During these health screenings, examiners check for cardiovascular alterations such as heart murmurs because they can be a sign of an underlying heart disorder. Since many heart alterations rarely have symptoms, they are easy to miss if health professionals are not specifically looking for them. Once cardiovascular alterations are identified in patients, it is important to refer them to specialists who can further investigate the cause.

Consider the following scenario:
A 16-year-old male presents for a sports participation examination. He has no significant medical history and no family history suggestive of risk for premature cardiac death. The patient is examined while sitting slightly recumbent on the exam table and the advanced practice nurse appreciates a grade II/VI systolic murmur heard loudest at the apex of the heart. Other physical findings are within normal limits, the patient denies any cardiovascular symptoms, and a neuromuscular examination is within normal limits. He is cleared with no activity restriction. Later in the season he collapses on the field and dies.

To prepare:

·         Review the scenario provided, as well as Chapter 24 in the Huether and McCance text. Consider how you would diagnose and prescribe treatment for the patient.

·         Select one of the following patient factors: genetics, ethnicity, or behavior. Reflect on how the factor you selected might impact diagnosis and prescription of treatment for the patient in the scenario.

QUESTIONS to be addressed in my assignment:

1.     A description of how you would diagnose and prescribe treatment for the patient in the scenario.

2.     Then explain how the factor you selected might impact the diagnosis and prescription of treatment for that patient.

3.     Summary with Conclusion

 

REMINDERS:

1)        2-3 pages (addressing the 3 questions above excluding the title page and reference page).

2)      Kindly follow APA format for the citation and references! References should be between the period of 2011 and 2016. Please utilize the references at least three below as much as possible and the rest from yours.

3)     Make headings for each question.

 

 

Discussion 2: Anaphylactic Shock

The treatment of anaphylactic shock varies depending on a patient’s physiological response to the alteration. Immediate medical intervention and emergency room visits are vital for some patients, while others can be treated through basic outpatient care.

Consider the January 2012 report of a 6-year-old girl who went to her school nurse complaining of hives and shortness of breath. Since the school did not have any medication under her name to use for treatment and was not equipped to handle her condition, she was sent to an emergency room where she was pronounced dead. This situation has raised numerous questions about the progression of allergic reactions, how to treat students with severe allergies, how to treat students who develop allergic reactions for the first time, and the availability of epinephrine in schools. If you were the nurse at the girl’s school, how would you have handled the situation? How do you know when it is appropriate to treat patients yourself and when to refer them to emergency care?

To prepare:

·         Review “Anaphylactic Shock” in Chapter 23 of the Huether and McCance text, “Distributive Shock” in Chapter 10 of the McPhee and Hammer text, and the Jacobsen and Gratton article in the Learning Resources.

·         Identify the multisystem physiologic progression that occurs in anaphylactic shock. Think about how these multisystem events can occur in a very short period of time.

·         Consider when you should refer patients to emergency care versus treating as an outpatient.

·         Select two patient factors different from the one you selected in this week’s first Discussion: genetics, gender, ethnicity, age, or behavior. Reflect on how the factors you selected might impact the process of anaphylactic shock.

 

QUESTIONS to be addressed in my assignment:

1.     An explanation of the physiological progression that occurs in anaphylactic shock.

2.     Describe the circumstances under which you would refer patients for emergency care versus treating as an outpatient.

3.      Explain how the patient factors you selected might impact the process of anaphylactic shock.

4.     Summary with Conclusion

 

REMINDERS:

1)        2-3 pages (addressing the 4 questions above excluding the title page and reference page).

2)      Kindly follow APA format for the citation and references! References should be between the period of 2011 and 2016. Please utilize the references at least three below as much as possible and the rest from yours.

3)     Make headings for each question.

 

RESOURCES:

 

Readings

·         Huether, S. E., & McCance, K. L. (2012). Understanding pathophysiology (Laureate custom ed.). St. Louis, MO: Mosby.

o    Chapter 22, “Structure and Function of the Cardiovascular and Lymphatic Systems”

This chapter examines the circulatory system, heart, systemic circulation, and lymphatic system to establish a foundation for normal cardiovascular function. It focuses on the structure and function of various parts of the circulatory system to illustrate normal blood flow. 

o    Chapter 23, “Alterations of Cardiovascular Function”

This chapter presents the pathophysiology, clinical manifestations, evaluation, and treatment of various cardiovascular disorders. It focuses on diseases of the veins and arteries, disorders of the heart wall, heart disease, and shock.

o    Chapter 24, “Alterations of Cardiovascular Function in Children”

This chapter examines cardiovascular disorders that affect children. It distinguishes congenital heart diseases from acquired cardiovascular disorders.

·         McPhee, S. J., & Hammer, G. D. (2010). Pathophysiology of disease: An introduction to clinical medicine (Laureate Education, Inc., custom ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Medical.

o    Chapter 10, “Cardiovascular Disorders: Heart Disease”

This chapter begins by exploring the normal structure and function of the heart. It then examines the etiology, pathophysiology, and clinical manifestations of five heart disorders: arrhythmias, congestive heart failure, valvular heart disease, coronary artery disease, and pericardial disease.

·         Jacobsen, R. C., & Gratton, M. C. (2011). A case of unrecognized prehospital anaphylactic shock.Prehospital Emergency Care, 15(1), 61–66. 
Retrieved from the Walden Library databases. 

This article provides information relating to the diagnosis and management of anaphylactic shock. It also explores difficulties encountered when diagnosing uncommon clinical presentations of anaphylactic shock.

·         American Heart Association. (2012). Retrieved from http://www.heart.org/HEARTORG/

·         Million Hearts. (2012). Retrieved from http://millionhearts.hhs.gov/index.html

·         National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. (2012). Retrieved from http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/

 

 

 

current   health behavior  research on obesity .

 

 For  this  Assignment,  you  will  build  upon  your previous  work  by  proposing  goals  and  objectives  of  a  fesible  health  intervention,  project,  or program to address the health behavior  components of this health issue which is OBESITY .

 

You  will  begin  this  Assignment  by  providing  a  summary  of  the  selected  health  issue  OBESITY and corresponding  health  behavior  theories.  In  outline  format,  you  will  provide  three  goals  for  the proposed  health  intervention,  project,  or  program.  Each  goal  should  have  at  least  2–3 objectives.  Goals  and  objectives  must  reflect  health  behavior  at  the  intrapersonal, interpersonal,  or  community-based  level.  Goals  and  objectives  must  also  be  specific, measurable,  achievable,  relevant,  and  time-bound  (i.e.,  SMART  goals).  Conclude  this Assignment  with  a  short  discussion  on  possible  barriers  or  challenges  to  implementing  these goals and objectives. Requirements

 

•  Utilize  the  Unit  4  Assignment  Template  that I attached

 

 Provide  proper  APA  style  citation  and  referencing  for  all  sources  used  to  develop goals  and  objectives.