Health Education Vocabulary

Module 6: Ethical, Legal, and Economic Foundations of the Educational Process

Objectives

  • Identify major ethical principles in healthcare education.
  • Distinguish ethical and legal dimensions in healthcare delivery for patients, staff, and students.
  • Describe the importance of nurse practice acts and the nursing code of ethics.
  • Recognize ethical consequences of power imbalances between teachers and students, or nurses and patients.
  • Describe legal and financial implications of documentation.
  • Delineate the ethical, legal, and economic importance of regulations and standards in healthcare services.
  • Differentiate among financial terms in patient and staff education programs.

Key Concepts

  • Nurses Code of Ethics
  • Promulgation of the Code of Ethics for Registered Nurses

Article I: Preamble

  • Section 1: Health is a fundamental right. Filipino registered nurses must preserve health, encompassing:
    • Promotion of health
    • Prevention of illness
    • Alleviation of suffering
    • Restoration of health
    • Assistance towards peaceful death, when necessary.
  • Section 2: Nurses must understand cultural, social, spiritual, physiological, psychological, and ecological aspects of illness, utilizing therapeutic processes. Cultural diversity, political and socio-economic status are key.
  • Section 3: Nurses should maintain high ethical conduct to earn respect and confidence.

Article II: Registered Nurses and People

  • Section 4: Ethical Principles
    1. Respect values, customs, and spiritual beliefs.
    2. Respect individual freedom to make rational decisions.
    3. Maintain strict confidentiality of personal information.
  • Section 5: Guidelines
    1. Consider individuality and totality of patients.
    2. Respect spiritual beliefs about diet and treatment.
    3. Uphold individual rights.
    4. Consider culture and values, but prioritize welfare and safety in conflicts.

Article III: Registered Nurses and Practice

  • Section 6: Ethical Principles
    1. Human life is inviolable.
    2. Quality and excellence are goals of nursing practice.
    3. Accurate documentation is key to accountability.
  • Section 7: Guidelines
    1. Know the scope of nursing practice per R. A. No. 9173 and Board Res. No. 425.
    2. Be aware of duties and responsibilities.
    3. Acquire competence through learning situations.
    4. Administrators should provide a favorable environment for nurses.
    5. Professional programs for specialty developments are accredited via NSCC.
    6. Ensure quality nursing care meets safe practice standards.
    7. Modify practice considering safe nursing principles.
    8. Authorities are legally responsible for minimizing ineffective/unlawful practice.
    9. Ensure patient records are available only to those professionally involved or as required by law.
  • Section 8: Nurses are patient advocates, safeguarding rights and privileges.
  • Section 9: Guidelines
    1. Respect the Patients' Bill of Rights.
    2. Provide pertinent information, except if harmful.
    3. Uphold patient rights during conflicts.
  • Section 10: Nurses are aware their actions have professional, ethical, moral, and legal dimensions.
  • Section 11: Guidelines
    1. Perform duties in conformity with laws, rules, regulations, and moral conduct.
    2. Avoid demeaning advertisements.
    3. Decline gifts that capitalize on patients.
    4. Not receive commissions for referrals; not pay commissions for patient referrals.
    5. Avoid abuse of privileged relationships or access.

Article IV: Registered Nurses and Co-Workers

  • Section 12: Nurses work in solidarity with the healthcare team and maintain collegial relationships.
  • Section 13: Guidelines
    1. Maintain professional role/identity.
    2. Conform to ethico-legal standards in group activities.
    3. Contribute to professional growth of team members.
    4. Participate in professional organizations.
    5. Do not act prejudicial to other professions.
    6. Honor reputations of colleagues; refrain from unwarranted comments.
    7. Respect co-workers' rights.

Article V: Registered Nurses, Society, and Environment

  • Section 14: Nurses commit to preserving life, respecting human rights, and promoting a healthy environment.
  • Section 15: Guidelines
    1. Be involved in community concerns as citizens.
    2. Be knowledgeable of health resources and participate in primary health care.
    3. Participate in programs addressing societal problems.
    4. Live in conformity with principles of right conduct.
    5. Project an image that uplifts the nursing profession.

Article VI: Registered Nurses and the Profession

  • Section 16: Loyalty, integrity, compliance with PNA bylaws, continual learning, and contribution to nurses' welfare are ideals.
  • Section 17: Guidelines
    1. Be members of PNA.
    2. Adhere to nursing standards.
    3. Participate in profession's growth.
    4. Strive for equitable work conditions through legislation.
    5. Assert implementation of labor standards.

Article VII: Administrative Penalties, Repealing Clause, and Effectivity

  • Section 18: Certificates can be revoked or suspended for code violations per R. A. No. 9173.
  • Section 19: Amended Code of Ethics is repealed/superseded.
  • Section 20: The code takes effect 15 days after publication.
  • Done in Manila, July 14, 2004.

Filipino Patient Bill of Rights

  • Ensures and protects patients' rights to decent, humane, and quality health care.
  • Adopts an integrated approach to make health services available at affordable costs.
  • Provides free medical care to paupers.
  • Basic rights:
    • Proper medical care and humane treatment
    • Informed consent
    • Privacy and confidentiality
    • Information
    • Choice of physician
    • Self-determination
    • Religious belief
    • Medical records
    • Right to leave
    • Refuse medical research
    • Correspondence and visitors
    • Express grievances
    • Be informed of rights and obligations.
Title I
  • Section 1. Short Title: "Magna Carta of Patient's Rights and Obligations."
  • Section 2. Declaration of Policy: Protect and promote the right to health and instill health consciousness.
Title II: Definition of Terms
  • Section 3. Definition of Terms:
    1. Advance Directive: Instructions made by a person regarding medical treatment during terminal illness or persistent vegetative state.
    2. Emergency: Unforeseen, life-threatening circumstances requiring immediate medical intervention.
    3. Health Care: Measures to determine or restore a patient's state of health.
    4. Health Care Institution: A site for prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and care of individuals suffering from illness, disease, injury, or deformity.
    5. Health Care Professional/Practitioner: Physicians, dentists, nurses, pharmacists, and other health personnel.
    6. Health Maintenance Organization: An entity providing designated health services for a fixed premium.
    7. Human Experimentation: Departure from standard medical practice to obtain new knowledge or test a scientific hypothesis on human subjects.
    8. Indigent Patient: A patient with insufficient income for subsistence.
    9. Informed Consent: Voluntary agreement to undergo a procedure based on understanding its consequences.
    10. Mass Media: Means of communication reaching large numbers of people.
    11. Media Practitioner: A person engaged in mass media.
    12. Medically Necessary: A service or procedure appropriate and consistent with diagnosis.
    13. Patient: A person availing themselves of health and medical care services.
    14. Public Health and Safety: Well-being of the population, requiring rights curtailment if needed.
    15. Terminal Care: Services maintaining comfort for a person suffering from terminal illness.
    16. Terminal Illness: An illness resulting in death within the foreseeable future.
    17. Terminal Phase: Stage of terminal illness with no prospect of recovery.
    18. Traditional and Alternative Health Care: Knowledge, skills, and practices other than biomedicine.
    19. Traditional and Alternative Health Care Practitioner Provider: A person practicing non-allopathic healing methods.
    20. Unwarranted Public Exposure: Subjecting a patient to exposure revealing their person or identity without consent.
Title III: Declaration of Rights
  • Section 4. The Rights of Patients: Rights to be respected by all involved in care:
    1. Right to Appropriate Medical Care and Humane Treatment: Right to health and medical care without discrimination, respecting dignity and individual needs. Patients in emergency should be extended immediate medical care without any deposit or advance payment.
    2. Right to Informed Consent: Right to a clear explanation of proposed procedures and written informed consent, except in emergencies, mass health programs, compulsory procedures, cases involving minors or legally incompetent patients, or patient waiver. Order of priority for third party consent is spouse, then parents, then guardian.
    3. Right to Privacy and Confidentiality: Privacy must be assured at all stages of treatment, free from unwarranted public exposure, except when condition is in controversy, public health demands, or patient waives the right. Information shall be treated as confidential with exceptions for public health, justice, court order, or continued medical treatment.
    4. Right to Information: Right to be informed of evaluation results, treatment plans, and itemized bills is available, and a free medical certificate. Also the patient also has the right not to be informed regarding his or her health.
    5. The Right to Choose Health Care Provider and Facility: Freedom to choose health care provider and facility, except when under service facility care or public health demands, or when the patient waives this right.
    6. Right to Self-Determination: Right to avail of recommended procedures. Any person of legal age can make advanced written directives for terminal care.
    7. Right to Religious Belief: Right to refuse treatment conflicting with religious beliefs, with limitations.
    8. Right to Medical Records: Entitlement to a summary of medical history and condition with viewable medical records with explanation. Health care institutions shall safeguard confidentiality.
    9. Right to Leave: The patient can leave a health care institution. However, appropriate arrangements have to be made in case of unpaid bills.
    10. Right to Refuse Participation in Medical Research: The patient can refuse medical research. There should be an IRB in research with human experimentation.
    11. Right to Correspondence and to Receive Visitors: The patient can communicate with relatives and other persons and to receive visitors.
    12. Right to Express Grievances: The patient can express complaints about care and services wihout discrimination.
    13. Right to be Informed of His Rights and Obligations as a Patient: Patients have to be informed of their rights and obligations.
  • Section 5. Societal Rights of Patients: In addition to individual rights, the patient has also societal rights such as the right to health, right to access to quality public healthcare, right to healthy and safe workplace, right to prevention and education programs, and the right to participate in policy decisions.
    1. Right to Health
    2. Right to Access to Quality Public Health Care
    3. Right to Healthy and Safe Workplace
    4. Right to Prevention and Education Programs
    5. Right to Participate in Policy Decisions
Title IV: Declaration of Obligations
  • Section 6. The Obligations of Patients: Obligations and responsibilities regarding care and behavior:
    1. Know Rights: The patient shall ensure that he/she knows and understands what the patients’ rights are and shall exercise those rights responsibly and reasonably.
    2. Provide Accurate and Complete Information: Complete information should be available regarding the patient's condition.
    3. Report Unexpected Health Changes: The patient has the duty to report any changes regarding his or her symptoms.
    4. Understand Purpose and Cost of Treatment: The patient shall understand what treatment he or she is taking.
    5. Accept Consequences of Own Informed Consent: The patient shall accept any consequences based on his or her informed consent.
    6. Settle Financial Obligations: Responsibilities should be fulfilled when it comes to paying finances.
    7. Relation to Others: Patients shall conduct themselves appropriately.
    8. Exhaust Grievance Mechanism: Patients shall first exhaust the grievance mechanism provided in this bill before filing any administrative or legal action.

Module 7: Health Education Team

Objectives

  • Recognize the role of the nurse as educator in health promotion and education.

Key Concepts

  • Health Educator: A facilitator or implementer of health education; an initiator of processes to improve health attitude and habits.
Traits/Qualities of a Health Educator
  • Efficient
  • Good Communicator
  • Good Listener
  • Creative / Resourceful
  • Keen Observer
  • Systematic
  • With sense of Humor
  • Change Agent
  • Tactful
  • Analytical
  • Knowledgeable
  • Open
Historical Foundation For The Teaching Role Of Nurses
  • Patient Education has been a standard component of nursing care.
  • 1950s:
    • NLE identified course content to prepare nurses as teachers.
    • Developed the first certified nurse educator (CNE) exam
    • ANA set forth statements on practice functions, standards, and qualifications, with teaching as a key element.
    • ICN endorsed the nurse’s role as educator.
    • All state nurse practice acts (NPA) include teaching as a responsibility; nurses must instruct consumers to maintain wellness and manage illness.
  • 1970s:
    • American Hospital Association developed the Patient’s Bill of Rights, adopted by hospitals nationwide.
    • It Established guidelines to ensure patients receive complete information about their diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis.
  • Mid-1800s:
    • Teaching recognized as an important nursing role.
    • Focus of teaching included: care of the sick and on promoting the health of the well public.
    • Educating other nurses for professional practice.
  • Florence Nightingale:
    • Founder of modern nursing, ultimate educator.
    • Developed the first school of nursing.
    • Emphasized proper conditions in hospitals and homes to improve health.
    • Taught the importance of adequate nutrition, fresh air, exercise, and personal hygiene.
  • Early 1900s:
    • Public health nurses understood the nurse's role as teacher in preventing disease and maintaining health; patient teaching was an independent function.
    • National League of Nursing Education (NLNE) recognized health teaching as a function within nursing practice.
    • Nurses were recognized as agents for health promotion and illness prevention.
  • As Early as 1993:
    • Joint Commission (formerly JCAHO) recognizes patient education.
    • JC standards (mandates) described the care, treatment, and services that must be provided by an agency or organization to receive accreditation.
    • Expanded expectations include interdisciplinary team approach and evidence of patient participation in care and decision making and that they understand what they have been taught, considering literacy level, language skills, educational background, culture of every client.
  • 1995 PEW HEALTH PROFESSION COMMISSION (PHPC):
    • Published competencies for health professions in the 21st century.
      *Recommendations proposed by the PHPC:
    1. Provide clinically competent and coordinated care to the public
    2. Involve patients and their families in the decision making process regarding health interventions
    3. Provide clients with education and counseling on ethical issues
    4. Expand public access to effective care
    5. Ensure cost-effective and appropriate care for the consumer
    6. Provide for prevention of illness and promotion of healthy lifestyle
  • According to Grueninger (1995):
    • The transition toward wellness has entailed a progression: “from disease-oriented patient education (DOPE) to prevention-oriented patient education (POPE) to health-oriented patient education (HOPE).”.
      a. From one of wise healer to expert advisor or teacher to facilitator of change
      b. Emphasis is now on empowering patients to use their potentials, abilities, and resources to the fullest.
      c. Another role of today’s educator is training the trainer – preparing the nursing staff through continuing education, in-service programs, and staff development to maintain and improve their clinical skills and teaching abilities. The key to success of the nursing profession is for the nurses to teach other nurses.
      d. Another very important role of the nurse as educator is serving as a clinical instructor for the students in the practice setting. Staff nurses function as clinical preceptors and mentors to ensure that nursing students meet their expected learning outcomes.
  • 2006: Institute of Healthcare Management was organized with the objective to reduce incidents of medical harm in US hospitals. Major implications:
    • Teaching patients and their families as well as nursing staff and students ways how they can improve care to reduce injuries, save lives, and decrease cost of health care
  • 2007 - SULLIVAN ALLIANCE Objective to recruit and educate staff nurses to deliver culturally competent care to the public they serve. Effective health care and health education of patients and their families depends on a sound scientific base and cultural awareness in an increasingly diverse society. Goal:
    • To increase the racial and cultural mix of nursing faculty, students, and staff, who will be sensitive to the needs of clients of diverse backgrounds.
  • Since the 1980s, the nurse as educator has shifted from a disease-oriented to a prevention-oriented approach, teaching for the promotion and maintenance of health.
  • Education has become part of the discharge plan and comprehensive plan across the healthcare continuum.
Roles of the Nurse as a Health Educator
  • The role has shifted from information giver to process designer/coordinator, from teacher-centered to learner-centered, requiring:
    a. Skill in needs assessment
    b. Ability to involve learners in planning
    c. Link teachers to learning resources
    d. Encourage learner initiative.
Roles of the Nurse as a Health Educator in Health Promotion
  1. Facilitator of Change Goal: To promote health
    • Effective in facilitating change:
      • Analyzing
      • Demonstrating
      • Asking questions
      • Explaining
      • Practicing
      • Providing closure
      • Dividing complex skills
  2. Contractor
    • Stating mutual goals
    • Devising an action plan
    • Evaluating the plan
    • Deriving alternatives
    • A contract involves trusting relationship
  3. Organizer
    • Manipulation of materials and space, sequential organization of content from simple to complex,
    • Determining priority of subject matter
  4. Evaluator
    • Evaluative processes are integral part of all learning.
    • Self-evaluation, learner evaluation, organization evaluation, peer evaluation
  5. Coordinator of care
    • By ensuring consistency of information, nurses can support their clients in their efforts to achieve the goal of optimal health.
    • They also can assist their colleagues in gaining knowledge and skills necessary for the delivery of professional nursing care.
  6. Trainer of trainers
    • Elements of an ideal relationship:
      1. Both parties have trust and respect.
      2. The teacher assumes the student can learn and is sensitive to individual needs.
      3. Both feel free to learn and make mistakes.
        Six Major Categories of Effective Teaching (Jacobson, 1966)
  7. Professional Competence
    • a. Shows genuine interest in patients and displays confidence in his/her professional abilities
    • b. Creative and stimulating, can excite student’s interest in nursing.
    • c. Polishes skills throughout his/her career through reading, research, clinical practice and continuing education
    • d. Portrays excellent clinical skills and judgment becomes a positive role model for learners
    • e. Demonstrate clinical skills with expertise
    • f. A teacher who aims at excellence develops a thorough knowledge of subject matter.
  8. Interpersonal relationships with students
    • a. taking a personal interest in learners f. being fair
    • b. being sensitive to their feelings and problems g. permitting learners to express differing points of view
    • c. conveying respect for them h. conveying a sense of warmth
    • d. alleviating their anxieties i. being accessible for conferences
    • e. creating an atmosphere in which they feel free to ask questions.
  9. Personal Characteristics
    • a. Personal magnetism g. Sense of humor
    • b. Enthusiasm h. Good speaking voice
    • c. Cheerfulness i. Self-confidence
    • d. Self-control j. Willingness to admit errors
    • e. Patience k. Caring attitude
    • f. Flexibility
  10. Teaching Practice
    • Mechanics, methods, and skills in classroom and clinical teaching.
    • Teaching subject matter in a stimulating way and inspiring learner interest depend on several factors:
      a. Teacher’s style
      b. Personality
      c. Personal interest in the subject
      d. Use of a variety of teaching strategies.
  11. Evaluation Practices valued by students:
    • a. clearly communicating expectations
    • b. providing timely feedback on student’s progress
    • c. correcting students tactfully
    • d. being fair in the evaluation process
    • e. giving tests that are pertinent to the subject matter
  12. Availability to the students
    • a. giving guidance during stressful clinical situations
    • b. physically helping students give nursing care
    • c. giving appropriate amount of supervision
    • d. freely answering questions
    • e. acting as a resource person during clinical learning experiences
Principles of Good Teaching Practice in Undergraduate Education
  1. Encourage student-faculty contact.
  2. Encourage cooperation among students.
  3. Encourage active learning.
  4. Give prompt feedback.
  5. Emphasize time on task.
  6. Communicate high expectations.
  7. Respect diverse talents and ways of learning.
Additional Key Terms
  • TEACHING: Sharing of knowledge and experience, organized within a discipline.
  • INSTRUCTION: Communicating of information about specific skills, interchangeable with teaching.
  • LEARNING: Change in behavior (KSA) due to environmental stimuli.
  • PATIENT EDUCATION: Assisting people to learn health-related behaviors.
Evaluating Teaching Effectiveness
  • There is no one style, technique, or skill that is effective for all learners and all teaching situations.

Module 8: Future Directions for Client Education

Objectives

  1. Understand the future trends and directions in Health Education
  2. Differentiate the types of third-party reimbursements in the Philippines

Key Concepts

  • Health education is evolving rapidly with new technologies, shifting public health priorities, and a deeper understanding of social determinants of health. There is a shift to the following: Greater emphasis on wellness
Future Trends and Directions
  1. Digital & Hybrid Health Education
    • Telehealth literacy: Educating individuals about how to properly utilize telemedicine and digital health technologies.
    • Mobile health apps: Incorporating app and wearable device data into health education systems.
    • Personalized health education using AI: Enabling health messages and interventions that are customized based on personal data and interests.
  2. Prioritize Mental Health & Emotional Wellbeing
    • Broadening curricula to include stress management, mindfulness, emotional intelligence, and resilience training.
    • Reducing stigma and enhancing access to mental health resources to the communities, workplaces, and schools.
  3. Community-Focused & Equity-Based Programs
    • Culturally appropriate and community-based health education programs.
    • Closing health gaps through education is specific to marginalized and vulnerable populations.
    • Identification of social determinants of health (such as housing, food security, and income) within educational material.
  4. Interdisciplinary & Life-Course Approaches
    • Working together across different sectors (schools, workplaces, health providers, social services).
    • Encouraging health education from early childhood to later adulthood, with specific topics at each stage of life.
  5. Climate Change and Environmental Health Literacy
    • Educating various communities regarding the health effects of climate change (air quality, heatwaves, food security, etc.).
    • Promoting and practicing actively sustainable and health-conducive lifestyle options.
  6. Evidence-Based & Data-Driven Health Promotion
    • Employing big data and community health needs assessment models in the planning of focused health education programs.
    • Employing behavior change theories and evaluation models in the enhancement of program effectiveness.
  7. Global Health Education
    • Teaching about global interconnectedness in health such as pandemics, migration, climate health issues, and other public health concerns.
    • Expanding collaboration between health educators all over the world.
Third-Party Reimbursement
  • Third-party reimbursement is defined as the compensation for medical services paid by some party other than the patient or medical provider.
  • Normally, that “third party” is a health insurance company — it might be a public health insurance plan, an individual private health insurance firm, or a health benefit offered by an employer.
Third Party Reimbursement in the Philippines
  1. Public Sector: PhilHealth (Philippine Health Insurance Corporation)
    • Main third-party payer in the country.
    • It is a government-run, social health insurance program that reimburses accredited healthcare providers for services rendered to PhilHealth members.
      *Coverage of benefit for members:
    • Inpatient care
    • Outpatient surgeries
    • Maternity benefits
    • Primary care services
    • Catastrophic illness packages (Z Benefit packages)
      *Reimbursement is typically done through case rates, where specific amounts are pre-determined for certain illnesses or procedures.
      *PHILHEALTH has recently expanded its services through the Universal Health Care (UHC) Act of 2019, aiming for 100% population coverage and better financial risk protection for its members and payors.
  2. Private Health Insurance Companies
    • Act as third-party payers for enrollees in Health Maintenance Organizations (HMOs) and private insurance plans. Examples are Maxicare, Intellicare, Medicard, Pacific Cross, and others.
    • Private insurance usually cover outpatient, inpatient, diagnostic, and sometimes dental services depending on the plan availed by the patients
      Payments can be made through various ways:
    • Direct billing (HMO pays hospital/clinic directly)
    • Reimbursement (patient pays first, then gets reimbursed later)
  3. Employer-Based or Group Health Insurance
    • Companies often provide health insurance packages for their employees via partnerships with HMOs or insurance firms.
    • This can cover employees and, in some cases depending on the companies, their dependents.
    • Reimbursement processes vary depending on the agreement with the HMO/insurer.

Module 9: Filipino Cultural Characteristics, Health Care Beliefs, and Practices in Health Education

Objectives

  1. Understand the cultural beliefs on health among Filipinos
  2. Develop a caring attitude when caring for patients with different cultural backgrounds
  3. Examine ways in which transcultural nursing can serve as a framework for meeting the learning needs of various ethnic populations.

Key Concepts

  • Culture is defined as the “totality of socially transmitted pattern of thoughts, values, meanings, and beliefs” (Purnell 2005). It is not limited to any specific ethnic group, geographical area, language, religious belief, manner of clothing, sexual orientation, and socioeconomic status (Fisher 1996).
  • Cultural awareness is a prerequisite prior to achieving cultural competency. It is the understanding that a cultural divide exists between the patient and health professional (Winkelman 2009).
  • Gender, socioeconomic level, and cultural background are significant influences on a learner’s willingness and ability to respond to and make use of the teaching–learning situation. These three factors also play a role in how people interpret their experiences, react to health and illness, and formulate their expectations of the nurse (Core, 2008).
  • Understanding diversity, particularly those variations among learners related to gender, socioeconomics, and culture, is of major importance when designing and implementing education programs to meet the needs of an increasingly unique population of learners.
Theories of illness
  • Mystical Theory - if there are unfulfilled obligations from ancestors then this could result in mystical experiences and behaviors. It also goes as far to say that during sleep the soul can be lost or if you are having nightmares then they are often the result of consuming a heavy meal and it could eventually lead to death (McBride, n.d.).
  • Personalistic Theory - Evil spirits or witches seeking retribution or social punishment can cause illness. This theory can be protected by wearing religious objects or using holy oils (McBride, n.d.).
  • Naturalistic Theory - This theory states that stress, infection, food and drugs, and natural events such as thunder, lightning, and drafts are all causes of illness (McBride, n.d.).
Filipino Cultural Beliefs
  • Namamana - Filipino language translation of acquiring a behavioral or disease trait from a parent. It is a belief that when a relative has the condition, it is possible that he/she will pass on the trait to the younger generation
  • Lihi - a concept used to explain why some children are noted to have certain specific characteristics. During the lihi period, also referring to the first trimester of pregnancy, the pregnant woman experiences a number of physical discomforts including feelings of dizziness, nausea, irritability, and general weakening of the body (Jocano 1973). It is also during this time that the pregnant woman develops intense craving for certain foods and intense liking for certain objects.
  • Pasma - defined as an “exposure illness” which occurs when a condition considered to be “hot” is attacked by a “cold” element and vice versa (Tan 2008). An individual’s homeostasis is attained by a balance between the hot and cold elements, and an illness is caused by a dominance of either hot or cold. Comparing with other belief systems, pasma is similar to the Chinese concept of yin and yang. Yin and yang refers to the balance between the two opposite, complementary, interdependent forces of nature Tang et al. (2008). Disease occurs when there is an imbalance in the yin-yang, flow of the blood, or disharmony between the natural elements of hot and cold (Low and Ang 2010).
  • Sumpa and gaba are beliefs in the Filipino culture pertaining to a curse. In sumpa, the curse is inflicted by a human being. In contrast, gaba is a curse inflicted by a divine being and it is usually God. This is inflicted to a person because he/she committed a social sin. Gaba is a cultural belief that is quite similar with the concept of bad karma. A belief of the Buddhists, bad karma is said to have afflicted a person when his/her illness is a result of a misdeed in the present or previous life (Kaufman 2005).
  • Namaligno is a Filipino belief that a disease is caused by an intervention of a supernatural or a mystical being (Abad 2013). Usually, namaligno is used as an explanation in conditions which remain to be mysteries because of the absence of an apparent cause.
  • Kaloob ng Diyos means God’s will. When a Filipino individual experiences an unexpected event in their life, whether negative or positive, it is typically attributed to the grace of God. This concept helps families cope and accept their life experiences. It provides access to personal empowerment and hope to families. As a means for coping, this concept allows affected families to emotionally move toward acceptance. It is common among Filipinos, especially those devout to their religion, to surrender their problems to a higher being, usually God. This highlights the Filipino value of religiosity and faith to a higher being, as someone who is all-knowing and almighty.
  • Timbang - according to this principle, health is thought to be a result of balance, while illness due to humoral pathology and stress is usually the result of some imbalance.
Rapid Shifts from “Hot” to “Cold” Cause Illness and Disorder.
  • “Warm” environment is essential for maintaining optimal health
  • Cold drinks or cooling foods should be avoided in the morning
  • An overheated body is vulnerable to disease; a heated body can get “shocked” when cooled quickly, it can cause illness
  • A layer of fat maintains warmth, protecting the body’s vital energy
  • Imbalance from worry and overwork create stress and illness
  • Emotional restraint is a key element in restoring balance
  • A sense of balance imparts increased body awareness
    Adapted from Becker (2003).
Health Beliefs and Behaviors: Health Promotion/Treatment Concepts
  • Flushing - The body is thought to be a vessel or container that collects and eliminates impurities through physiological processes such as sweating, vomiting, expelling gas, or having an appropriate volume of menstrual bleeding.
  • Heating - Adapts the concept of balanced between “hot” and “cold” to prevent occurrence of illness and disorders.
  • Protection - Safeguards the body’s boundaries from outside influences such as supernatural and natural forces.
Coping Styles
  • Patience and Endurance (Tiyaga): the ability to tolerate uncertain situations
  • Flexibility (Lakas ng Loob): being respectful and honest with oneself
  • Humor (Tatawanan ang problema): the capacity to laugh at oneself in times of adversity
  • Fatalistic Resignation (Bahala Na): the view that illness and suffering are the unavoidable and predestined will of God, in which the patient, family members and even the physician should not interfere.
  • Conceding to the wishes of the collective (Pakikisama) to maintain group harmony.

Module 10: New technologies, new settings & environmental linkages

Objectives

  1. Describe the impact of new and emerging technologies on education
  2. Discuss appropriate educational strategies using technology to promote effective learning outcomes for patients with various learning needs
  3. Describe the role of health educator in using technology in patient, staff and student education
  4. Discuss technological advances available for professional education and higher education to reach learners in distant locales

Key Concepts

  • New technologies like robotics, artificial intelligence, and naturally the internet are transforming health education through enhanced access, individualization, interactivity, and cooperation. They equip learners for actual healthcare issues