Teaching Recreational Staff About the Dangers of Heat Waves

¶ … Teaching Plan: Reflection and Evaluation

Summary of teaching plan

The topic of the presentation and instruction is heatstroke and other heat related causes of death. The teaching presentation was provided to staff at a Parks and Recreation department in the community, and plans are being made to conduct the teaching presentation at church communities in preparation for their vacation Bible school activities, at adult / child care centers that often plan outings for their program participants, and at health centers at Universities who are in a position to encounter university students who are suffering from a heat-related threats to their health.

The heat wave that occurred in western Europe in the summer of 2003 is a case study in the relation of social structure and cultural practices and the impact of a natural disaster on public health (Kopp, et al., 2015). Heat waves are more lethal to the poor who do not have air conditioning and the elderly who live alone and don't have much contact with others on a daily basis: these situations are characteristic of French family structure and culture (Kopp, et al., 2015). Elders were left in the cities without air-conditioning while their families and physicians vacationed on the coasts (Kopp, et al., 2015). This information about the somewhat unique public health policy and practice issues of the heat wave in France in 2003 ties to Alma Ata's Health for All Global Initiative to consider health "as a socio-economic issue and as a human right," and calls for "economic and social development as a pre-requisite to the attainment of health for all."

The teaching plan focused on three primary areas: 1) The astonishing numbers of people who perished during the heat wave and the socio-politico-economic reasons for the exacerbation of the heat waves; 2) the concept of wet-bulb temperature that is a product of air temperature, relative humidity, and surface pressure; and 3) the symptoms and treatment of heat stroke and other heat-related conditions that can worsen until they culminate in heat stroke, and potentially, death.

In addition, the topic and teaching plan integrates well with the Healthy People 2020 goal for this community teaching initiative is as follows: Improve the Nation's ability to prevent, prepare for, respond to, and recover from a major health incident. The objectives for this goal that are relevant to the proposed community teaching initiative are as follows: 1) Foster informed, empowered individuals and communities; 2) ensure situational awareness; 3) ensure timely and effective communications; 4) ensure prevention or mitigation of environmental and other emerging threats to health; 5) ensure that all systems that support national health security are based on the best available science, evaluation, and quality improvement.

The theory of learning to be utilized is constructivism, which holds that learning is an active and constructive process in which individuals construct or create their own subjective representation of some objective reality (Atherton, 2013). Prior and new information are integrated through activity, dialogical process, and experience (Atherton, 2013). The creative group activities that are used during the teaching presentation provide opportunity for the integration of active, cognitive, and relational features (Atherton, 2013). The participants will learn new facts about heat waves and apply it to their work in Parks and Recreation in order to ensure that people engage in physical activities safely, that they understand the danger of overheating during hot and human conditions, and with a healthy regard to the weather.

The primary learning objectives for the teaching presentation are as follows: 1) Parks & Recreation staff will be able to explain the dynamics of wet-bulb temperature by he end of the presentation; 2) Parks & Recreation staff will be able to list recent heat waves and the approximate number of people who died from heat-related causes during the heat waves by the end of the presentation; and 3) Parks & Recreation staff will be able to explain physiological response to wet-bulb temperatures, describe the symptoms and causes of heat stroke, and list the precautions that need to be put in place -- all by the end of the presentation. The instructional content presented for each of the main topics listed here: 1) The interactions of the variables of the wet-bulb metric, and when the metric signals a threat to health; 2) the impact of a warming climate on the frequency and severity of heat waves and associated severe weather patterns, such as droughts, floods, & storms; 3) the socioeconomic conditions that exacerbate the threat of heat waves to public health; 4) he cultural factors that contribute to vulnerability of members of a society; and 5) practice predicting the wet-bulb temperatures of individuals in different situations.

Epidemiological rationale for topic

Heat waves present a threat to physical health. Mid-2015 heat wave in India took over 2,500 lives (Kopp, et al., 2015). Midwestern heat wave of July 1995 caused over 700 deaths (Kopp, et al., 2015). The August 2003 heat wave in western Europe led to roughly 45,000 deaths (Kopp, et al., 2015). Approximately 54,000 people died in western Russia as a result of the July-August 2010 heat wave (Kopp, et al., 2015). Higher temperatures and higher humidity increase wet-bulb temperature to life threatening levels (Kopp, et al., 2015). Wet-bulb temperature is a combination of air temperature, relative humidity, and surface pressure (Kopp, et al., 2015). Wet-bulb temperature measures how well a person can cool their skin by sweating, which the primary way that people stay alive during periods of extreme heat (Kopp, et al., 2015). A person who is physically active at 80 degrees wet-bulb temperature risks overheating (Kopp, et al., 2015). A sedentary person in a swimsuit in the shade risks overheating at 92 degrees wet-bulb temperature. (Kopp, et al., 2015) A wet-bulb temperature of 95 degrees is lethal after about six hours (Kopp, et al., 2015).

Evaluation of teaching experience

Participants took pre- and post-quizzes to assess their basic knowledge regarding heat stroke, the wet-bulb temperature dynamic, and the socio-economic and cultural influences that exacerbate a heat wave situation for vulnerable people. Where the questions on the quizzes were open-ended, formative assessment of participants' recall and grasp of the teaching presentation content was based on a rubric that provided several stepped responses toward a complete correct answer.

Community response to teaching