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Back to the Basics: A Teaching Plan

Julie Arsenault
Norquest College
NFDN 1002
Assignment One: Teaching Plan: Lifting an Object to Provide Back Health
Sat Pal Mahey
January 18, 2015

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Body Mechanics and Proper Alignment: A Teaching Plan

Client education is one of the foundations of modern nursing practice. A nurse must
ensure that clients, families, and communities receive information needed to maintain optimal
health (Potter and Perry, 2009, p.310). This is done through client teaching. Teaching is most
effective when it is responsive to the learners needs; therefore, the client should be an active
participant in the teaching plan. Teaching is also a form of therapeutic communication between
the teacher and the student in which they are actively increasing the students knowledge and
skill. In the following teaching plan, I have interviewed a friend of mine who had been
complaining of aches and pains in her back. We sat down together and assessed her history,
what it was that was bothering her, possible avenues that would promote her recovery, what she
hoped to achieve, and together, we set goals.
Assessment of Client and Client Learning Needs
Assessment of Client using the Nursing Metaparadigm; learning Needs; Readiness to
Learn
The client is a 27-year-old female. She lives in low-income housing with her husband and
four children. She is bilingual- speaking Somali and English and works full-time shift work as a
nursing attendant at a nearby assisted-living facility. She eats a healthy, balanced diet but rarely
exercises, apart from the activity she gets at work. She has had four healthy pregnancies and her
only previous surgery was a tonsillectomy twenty-one years previously. She has been
complaining of pain and stiffness in her back and hips.
The client has expressed interest in refreshing her knowledge related to body mechanics
and proper alignment. She feels she has forgotten how to move. I become so focused on the task

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I am on that I do not consider how I am doing it. Now my back hurts often and I feel like I need
to relearn how to take care of myself.
Client Barriers to Learning
Although the client is fluent in English and Somali verbally, she admits she struggles
with her English in reading and in writing. Potter and Perry (2009) state that professions should
pay special attention to the learning needs of clients who have reading problems and of those
whose first language is not English or French (p.308).
Client Learning Style
This client has informed me that she is a psychomotor learner. She needs to touch and
do in order to make the information stick. According to Potter and Perry (2009), a
psychomotor learner needs the integration of mental and muscular activity (p.298) to acquire
new skills; therefore, I will ensure to teach in a manner that will allow her to participate and
demonstrate the activities to me.
Nursing Diagnosis, Goal and Learning Outcomes
Nursing Diagnosis
I have given a wellness diagnosis of health-seeking behaviour related to a lack of
knowledge about proper body mechanics and alignment as evidenced by her telling me she feels
she need[s] a refresher for the things [she has] forgotten. (Gulanick & Myers, 2011).
Goal and Client Involvement

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This client will use proper body mechanics and body alignment while at work and at
home. Client has expressed a desire to refresh her knowledge on body mechanics to prevent
injury to herself and to others. She would like to practice lifting objects and correct [her]
posture while doing basic tasks.
Learning Outcomes
After two sessions (two weeks), client will display proper body mechanics and
maintained alignment while completing a series of three tasks. She will lift a heavy box from the
floor to the kitchen table, make a closed bed, and (with myself as her buddy) boost a person up in
bed.
After two sessions (two weeks), client will be able to watch and correct me while I
perform similar tasks with poor body mechanics and improper alignment. She will explain to me
what I did wrong and walk me through the proper procedure.
Teaching Strategies and Rationale
The two teaching strategies, respectively, that I will use with the client include
demonstration and role-play and discovery. Demonstration provides a presentation of
procedures/skills by [a] nurse, encourages the client to model a nurses behaviour, and allows the
nurse to control questioning during demonstration (Pottery and Perry, 2009, p.306). Role-play
and discovery encourages the client to actively apply knowledge in controlled situations [and]
also promotes synthesis of information and problem solving (Potter and Perry, 2009, p.307).
Evaluation and Reflection
Evaluation Criteria

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Client must be able to demonstrate to me correct body mechanics and alignment while
she performs the three outlines tasks. She must also be able to correct my mistakes as I role-play
poor posture and body mechanics. She must be able to explain what I did wrong and tell me how
it would have been done correctly.
Strength and Weakness of the Teaching Plan
I believe that this teaching plan is strong in that we utilized the clients strengths and we
were able to meet her learning needs together in a way that was best suited for her.
I now see a weakness in the teaching plan where I could have looked further into the
underlying causes of her poor habits. If I were to do this over, I would add an additional
diagnosis of at risk for fatigue which would allow support and instruction on some relaxation
techniques and ways for her to have time for herself in such a busy life.
Implications for Using a Teaching Plan in Future Practice
I learned that regardless how simple a situation may seem, there are always underlying
factors. I will remember to explore the root causes of a problem and ensure a holistic therapy for
the client.
Conclusion
The above teaching plan is an example of the Nursing Process being utilized for client
education. The client and I met to assess her history and concerns, I formulated a nursing
wellness diagnosis, we worked together to develop a plan and followed through to improve her
health knowledge. In the end, we met again to evaluate her learning progress. She did very well
in the evaluation. Much of the information we covered was information that she had previously

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learned; however, she had not kept up-to-date or attended workplace in-services offered to her.
Since, her back has not been as sore and she has been stretching with the kids each night before
bed. She continues to practice body mechanics (and corrects me when mine are lacking!).
Teaching Plans can be incorporated into various nurse-client relationships and in all
environments. Health education such as this is pertinent to encourage health promotion,
restoration, and maintenance in day-to-day life.

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References
Potter, P. A., & Perry, A. G. (2009) Canadian fundamentals of nursing (4th ed.). Toronto, ON:
Mosby Elsevier
Gulanick, M., & Myers, J. L. (2011) Nursing care plans, diagnoses, interventions, and outcomes
(7th ed.). St. Louis, MI: Mosby Elsevier.