Medical Essay on Ebola

Ebola is one of the highly contagious communicable diseases in the world. Additionally, since the first diagnosis of the disease was made in 2014, no cure has been invented and certified to be effective in treating the disease. Additionally, it is evident that numerous nursing practitioners in various medical institutions around the world, especially in the United States, lack sufficient knowledge of the disease and how to manage it in the event there is an outbreak. Today, with the cross movement of people and animals from one region to another even over long distances, the risk of Ebola virus transmission is very high. As such, providing an effective training intervention on the causes, symptoms, treatment and prevention measures for Ebola is of paramount importance. This is an experience reflection of a teaching plan that was employed to train a community of healthcare nursing practitioners on how to effectively diagnose, treat and manage Ebola, a severely infectious communicable disease.

Epidemiological Rationale for Selecting the Topic

The choice of the topic was based on the reason that Ebola is a highly contagious ailment that has already claimed the life of thousands of people. Additionally, the first outbreak of the Ebola virus disease (EVD) was reported in remote villages that are situated in Central Africas rainforests CITATION Ann171 \l 1033 (Birn, Pillay, & Holtz, 2017). Moreover, the first emergence of the disease took place in 2014, and there was no prior research on the disease. Nevertheless, to date, no certified cure has been developed for the treatment of EVD CITATION Kat152 \l 1033 (Thomas, Amhoff, & Beech, 2015). Subsequently, this means that there would be a high risk of casualties if the EVD transmission rate would occur on a large scale. Furthermore, the elevated contagious level of the EVD is also a primary reason why the topic of the teaching plan was selected. Additionally, this is because EVD can transmit between animals-to-humans as well as between human-to-human (Vidal, 2015; Sing, 2014). In animals-to-human transmission, a person can acquire EVD if he/she touches an animal with the Ebola virus. In most cases, wild animals living in EVD prone areas carry the Ebola virus. On the other hand, in human-to-human transmission, if an uninfected person gets in contact with the bodily fluids of a person with EVD, a transmission occurs.

Most symptoms of EVD also occur in other communicable diseases. For instance, some of the common symptoms of EVD include fever, diarrhea, head and muscle aches, loss of appetite and stomach pains among others CITATION Adn16 \l 1033 (Qureshi, 2016). Additionally, such symptoms are also manifested in other communicable diseases like tuberculosis and hypertension among others. As a result, it is remarkably hard for a medical practitioner to diagnose the EVD prevalence in a patient during a first test. Consequently, this heightens the risk of transmission between the patient and his/her doctor or between the patient and other patients that may be hospitalized in a medical facility. Additionally, this also means that a wrong diagnosis of EVD in a healthcare institution could result in a catastrophic level of infection and mortalities associated with EVD. Moreover, such an outcome would take place due to lack of instant deployment of quarantine measures in a health organization with the primary aim of preventing further transmission. Also, the topic was chosen due to the short time frame of EVD from infection to death. Additionally, based on the reports of the World Health Organization (WHO), the mortality rate associated with EVD is measured at 50% of all the infected persons CITATION Mar152 \l 1033 (Baird, 2015). Subsequently, these factors justify the need for training to be executed to enlighten medical practitioners on how to identify the symptoms and management of EVD effectively.

Evaluation of the Teaching Experience

The teaching process was seamless, and the participants were very interested in the topics taught. Also, most of the healthcare workers who took part in the training asked questions on issues that were not clear to them. Furthermore, all participants of the training were satisfied by the comprehensiveness of the pamphlet teaching tool that was administered to them during the teaching process. Ultimately, the effectiveness of the training can be supported by the large number of nurses who consented to enroll in various humanitarian programs that are focused on offering healthcare aid to persons affected and infected by EVD. Furthermore, in an effort to access the effectiveness of the teaching plan used in the project, the nursing practitioners who benefitted from the training were offered an evaluation questionnaire. Moreover, the questionnaire contained a series of structured questions that were designed to collect information about the suitability of the teaching plan in executing its objective. Additionally, from the evaluation exercise, it is evident that the nurses who were trained gained substantial information on how to diagnose, treat, vaccinate, prevent and manage EVD. Furthermore, the nurses attained statistical information on the mortality rate of people who had been diagnosed with EVD from 2014. Subsequently, this enabled such healthcare practitioners to realize the urgency of promoting awareness of the EVD in various healthcare institutions.

Community Response to the Teaching

The targeted population stated that they did not possess sufficient information on how to prevent themselves and others in the event of an EVD outbreak. Furthermore, due to the insignificant prevalence of EVD in the United States, the majority of the nurses who benefited from the training lacked the information on how to accurately identify the symptoms of EVD in a patient population. Moreover, the beneficiaries of the training became more confident with themselves with the acquired knowledge of how to place persons infected with EVD under quarantine. Also, the nursing practitioners became aware of the available vaccines that could be employed in the prevention and management of EVD among persons living in the Ebola virus prone areas. Furthermore, during the execution of the training, the population that was being trained the realization of the severity of EVD transmission as well as the high mortality rate associated with the ailment. As a result, 75% of them consented to apply for health wellness programs with the United Nations (UN) that structured for creating awareness about EVD and its transmission. Additionally, some of such programs by the UN are aimed at taking qualified medical personnel and healthcare aid to regions affected by the Ebola virus transmission, especially in Africa.

Areas of Strength and Areas That Require Improvement

Three primary strengths that were observed when using the teaching plan. First, the participants that were involved in the training were persons in the healthcare professions. As such, they were easily convinced on the importance of adopting effective readiness measures again EVD in the event of its occurrence. Second, the use of pamphlets as presentation tools promoted the ease of information delivery to the targeted audience. In this case, all the learners were issued a copy of the training pamphlet, which contained a summary of the causes, symptoms, vaccines, treatment and preventive measures of EVD. Additionally, pamphlets were appropriate for the training exercise because they were cheap to prepare, and they could be carried and distributed to the targeted audience with ease.

Third, the use of questionnaires to assess the effectiveness of the teaching program was essential to the educators. In this case, it was easy to collect information from the training participants pertaining the areas of EVD training required clarification. Subsequently, this ensured that all participants of the training were satisfied with the disseminated information. Nevertheless, there was one area that required an improvement in the teaching exercise. Additionally, this is that only the nursing professionals were taught on how to manage and prevent transmission of EVD. Instead, other stakeholders in the medical institutions like the doctors, janitors, and patients should also have been involved in the training. Additionally, this is because they may also be at risk of EVD transmission in the event there is an outbreak in their medical institutions.

Conclusion

In conclusion, there is need to teach medical practitioners on how to effectively diagnose, treat and manage Ebola, a severely infectious communicable disease. Additionally, the epidemiological rationale for selecting the topic in the executed teaching plan was based on reason that Ebola is a highly contagious ailment that has already claimed the life of thousands of people. Additionally, it is not easy to diagnose the disease because most symptoms of EVD also occur in other communicable diseases. Moreover, during the evaluation of the EVD training, it is plausible to state that the teaching process was seamless, and the participants were very interested in the topics taught. Additionally, the response of the targeted population to the teaching exercise was positive. Also, this is because the participants of the process confirmed that they did not possess sufficient information on how to prevent themselves and others from an EVD transmission in the event of an outbreak. Ultimately, the strengths that were observed in the teaching process included the selection of participants from the medical field, and the use of pamphlets as presentation tools. Also, the last strength was the use of questionnaires to assess the effectiveness of the teaching process.

References

BIBLIOGRAPHY Baird, M. S. (2015). Manual of Critical Care Nursing: Nursing Interventions and Collaborative Management. Amsterdam: Elsevier Health Sciences.

Birn, A.-E., Pillay, Y., & Holtz, T. H. (2017). Textbook of Global Health. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Qureshi, A. (2016). Ebola Virus Disease: From Origin to Outbreak. Amsterdam: Elsevier Science.

Sing, A. (2014). Zoonoses - Infections Affecting Humans and Animals: Focus on Public Health Aspects. Berlin: Springer.

Thomas, K. L., Amhoff, T., & Beech, N. (2015). Industries of Architecture. New York: Routledge.

Vidal, Y. (2015). How to Prevent the Spread of Ebola: Effective Strategies to Reduce Hospital Acquired Infections. London: Lara Publications Inc.