Cristy McMahon: Education Program - Essay Example

Cristy McMahon designed her patient education program around the identified needs of the cardiac patients who will undergo rehabilitation.  Aside from the identified needs she also structured her patient education program around the demographics of the patients such as their age (young patients remember more information than older patients), exposure to the material (those who have previous information have better retention), the manner by which the material is presented and more.  Over a period of time, the patients will be exposed to a mixture of media-like discussions on the importance of aerobic exercise, visual aids, handouts, and the like.  All of these are believed to aid in the learning of the students on the particular content proposed by Ms. McMahon.

Her work obviously is centered on the premise that media has an important part in the education of the patients.  However, she does not show a random use of available media.  Her use of these materials is anchored on the objectives she has set out for each session of her program.  For example, the discussion on the importance of aerobic exercise, through the use of video presentations and giving out of handouts, is done in the first few sessions of the patient education program.  In so doing, she enables the students to comprehend the objectives of the program, the activities of each session, and the overall impact of the class on their well-being.  Also, in her lesson on the duration of exercise, she gives the students exercise charts where the students can note and monitor how long or how often they have done the assigned exercise and to what extent they have reached their targets.  This is a good follow-up of learning because the students will be able to apply what they have learned (that this type of cardio work-out can only last for this period of time or that doing this cardio work-out should bring the heart rate to this value) and that this will also monitor the development of the patients in as far as their participation on the activities is concerned.   

I agree with her use of various types of media because this makes the patients eager for the next lessons in their anticipation of what media will be used.  Also, the class content in itself needs the use of media, particularly videos and pictures to show or illustrate the various exercises, materials used, and the like. The classic classroom discussion is not sufficient with this type of class content or class objective. 

The flow or sequencing of events in the program is also well planned.  It starts with the getting-to-know stage down to the involvement stage.  Similar to any type of relationship, the involvement of the cardiac patients in aerobic exercise as rehabilitation should start with the introduction to make the patients comprehend the concepts and even unlearn their previous misconceptions.  Through this, the patients will slowly embrace their rehabilitation through aerobic exercise.  Involvement takes time and a certain level of acceptance from the participants.  If the patients do not accept the fact that they need to do aerobic exercise, it will be difficult to implement the rehabilitation process.