Need Advice!!!!!!! Teaching Project!

[Nubany]

Hi Everyone,

I am currently taking nursing 1 and we are now preparing for the teaching and learning project. My group has been assigned to do a teaching learning project on "Risks for falls" at a Senior Site. Not only do we have to write a paper for this assignment but we also have to do a presentation. We are able to handle the paper but the presentation believe it or not is giving us the most problem. The presentation is supposed to be captivating and interactive (these are older adults they tend to have a short attention span) I was thinking we could come up with a game and a short skit. Does anyone have any ideas for the presentation. Please keep in mind that these are older adults.

Thanks for your help!

[llg, PhD, RN]

I am a little doubtful about the game. When you include games in a class, it takes a lot of classtime -- unless the game is so simplistic and short that the audience generally thinks it's pretty lame. It's harder to create and implement a decent and effective game than you may think.

Perhaps you could do a series of brief skits/demonstrations based on scenarios generated by the participants themselves. The class could participate by helping the students "work out" solutions to common high risk situations in which they find themselves. You would be involving them in coming up with the high risk situations -- and giving them practice in problem-solving as you work through possible strategies to avoid falls. The students could "act out" the scenarios -- demonstrating both bad outcomes when the wrong actions are take and the avoidance of a fall when a good avoidance strategy is used.

[NSALVADORE]

We had a similar assignment my first year. We went to an adult day care center and our topic was choking. We made little stop signs on sticks and handed them out. We did little skits of "choking hazards" and they were to put up the stop sign if they thought what we were doing was dangerous. Then we'd ask why and what we should do differently. They really liked it and it kept them interested, some of the things we did were silly and made them laugh. My teacher liked it and we got an A.

Just a tip, you want to be careful not to dumb it down too much, they do feel like they're treated like children sometimes so just be careful of that!