Plan to Improve Health and Well-being

HEALTH

According to WHO health is a complete wellbeing of physical, mental and social health with absence of diseases. According to this definition I don’t think I am really healthy as I am not doing any exercise daily, I am not taking equal portion of fruits and vegetables every day. I take too much stress over little things as well as get angry easily. I only slept well enough when I have a day off from my school or job rest of the days I slept less than 6 hours. My BMI is over between 22 to 24. Besides, I have some good habits as well for instance I don’t drink or smoke that’s why my blood pressure is under normal ranges. I want to improve my physical health (start doing exercise at least 4 days a week, proper servings of fruits and vegetables), my emotional health (practice aggression management techniques). Mental health (proper scheduling my day to get enough sleep, stress management techniques). Modifying undesirable behavior to desirable behavior is very important to prevent from long term consequences for instance if I will not do exercise and take oily food instead of fruits and vegetables than daily calorie level, fat deposition and cholesterol level increase in my body and lead to obesity. Constant aggression and continuous hitting of stressful situations and obesity will alter my blood pressure level which are now in normal ranges and in long term increase the risk of common cardiovascular diseases. Moreover, if I will not get enough sleep I will not always feel fresh next day hence, unable to concentrate on my work and my job will be affected. I will explode my aggression and frustration on my family and fail to maintain a balance between my personal and professional life in long term.

COGNITIVE HEALTH (10 marks)

Becoming aware of life values gives a sharper focus and better clarity of life choices that define who you are. For me the core values of my life are:

1. 4 C’s Caring, Commitment, Compassion, Courteous: Being in the health care profession these core values along with my profession become important part of life. Caring for others (your patients) and self-care extend the helping hands. Commitment is a promise that I have made with my profession that I will always loyal with my patients this help me achieving the most important in my life. Being compassion will help me in taking care of one another regardless of their religion, skin color, preferences. Being courteous is important me because this will help me understanding another person pain and feelings.
2. Devotion: Being dedicated in unstable times, in difficult circumstances of my interpersonal relationships helps me to be strong, never give up and implies me to keep on trying.
3. Hope: Hope is the fuel that keeps me doing efforts no matter the outcome and help me moving forward. Reassure me that time will not always be the same.
4. Honest: To live with honesty is important for my personal and professional life as it keep my heart and soul pure. I feel satisfaction that whatever I am doing is right and my mind free of doubts and uncertainty.

Critical thinking includes identifying a problem, identifying the best solution, choosing the most effective way of reaching that solution and then reflecting upon its effectiveness (Wilk, Newmaster, Sorrentino & Remmert, 2012). Critical thinking is the most important skill for HCA in fact for all health care professionals because they are what HCA’s use to prioritize and make important decision to save lives of their patients. Being an ideal HCA I will use my critical thinking skills every day to assess, plan for, and provide quality patient care to their patients. Moreover, when I end up in crisis situation I will utilize my critical thinking skills to assess the situation, consider choices and potential outcomes to come up with best possible solutions.

Everyone have a different and unique learning style and they learn in their own way that’s why learning is considered as a complicated concept. I found myself as a visual learner because that visual aids are a powerful tool and add power to the spoken words. Diagrams, images and colors in my faculty’s teaching material during class impact directly to my imagination and help me to understand, comprehend and follow all the presentation information more effectively and efficiently.

Both parts of human brain are considered important and function equally I myself feel that my right hemisphere of the brain is most active because I am big picture oriented and holistic thinker this help me being an HCA to look for patient problem holistically and then respond upon it. My though process is visual (nonverbal) I can better understand nonverbal cues of clients having communication difficulties. I emphasize on possibilities while solving the problems this will support me in identifying as much as possible solution for a single problem. Moreover, I am good at remembering the events in this way I can easily reflect back upon the past events to analyze the same kind of present problem.

EMOTIONAL HEALTH ( 10 marks)

Emotional health is about being self-confident and self-aware. Good emotional health to cope with life’s challenges in a better way and help to easily recover from setbacks. It was my first day at job working as a casual support worker. I was assigned with a client who was mentally and physically disable and gave me a very tough time during the 5-hour shift. The incident affect my thoughts, feeling and behavior.

My thoughts: My first day at job went very bad so I start thinking that I will never able to do this job as I fail to handle the one client then I could I manage the other more challenging clients.

My feelings: I will start feeling hopeless and despondent and start feeling doubtful to engage in the behaviors necessary to complete the task.

My behavior: Due to my thoughts and feelings my behavior will be changed and I quit working with that client. I talk to my manager that I am not comfortable working with that client please do not give me shift with that client. My manager counsel me that as it is my first day that’s why I am feeling like that but with time I will become comfortable working with that client and by the time I develop rapport she will assigned me with another senior staff.

My self-esteem positively affected by my husband behavior. He always trusts appreciate, motivate and supports me and never use to criticize me. whenever I cook something for him and there is a problem in it he never uses to blame me but calmly and politely explain me and give me feedback. His behavior increase my self-confidence and my self-esteem and I respond to him and others in a more positive way.

When I started my HCA course one of my friend who was also doing course with me was very worried and concern as she was from business background and have no idea about medical field. She discusses with me that the course will be very easy for me as I am already belonging to the health field but for her if things went smooth in the first month then only she will continue the course otherwise she will quit. I motivate her that I will help you out as much as possible for me and I am sure you will complete the course with good grades. My motivation creates a positive impact on her self-esteem and self-confidence and due to her hardworking she was performing good in the first month. She then decides to continue the course.

I am not a good risk taker, mostly I am not willing to take risk and prefer to safely handle the things. For example, whenever I plan to do online shopping after sorting out the clothes I mostly drop the idea of doing online shopping as I don’t want to take risk if clothes are not as same as it is in the picture then I will lose my money.

STRESS (6 marks)

Right now, my current stressor is my busy schedule, from Monday to Friday I have to attend college then have to look after household chores with studies. In addition, I am immigrant in Canada and right now in the process of my permanent residency so on weekends I have to do job to show the immigrant officer that I am doing some hours of job with my studies.

Sometime stress benefit by making us more focused and alert, but when stress becomes unmanageable it can create havoc in life disturbing from diet to relationships. Sometime I feel that I become overwhelmed with my stressor and exhibit behaviors like feeling less excited, sometime fail to achieve my goals, sometime I feel less self-control in myself and become easily annoyed, aggressive and consuming more junk food including candies. I feel become more emotional and more forgetful at time.

Stress management is the goal of my behavior modification project and I plan certain strategies to overcome it for instance improving my sleep hours, doing meditation, spend less time working late night, becoming more organize, asking for help from my family members in doing household chores, proper planning and prioritizing my tasks, doing exercise and improving my eating habits.

NUTRITION

SAMPLE: 24 hour food record: Date: February 12^th 2017

Start & End Time: 100am to 2230

Food LogRecommendedDifference

Water800ml (4 cup) 9 ½ cup 5.5 less

Protein Fried egg 1 2 eggs 1 egg less

fried rice 1 cup ½ cup ½ cup more

kabab 1/2 cup

Mutton 1 cup ½ cup ½ cup more

Carbs Bread 2 slice 1 slice 1 slice more

FatButter 3 tbsp 2tbsp 1 tbsp. more

Oil 6 to 7 tbsp 2-3 tbsp 4 tbsp. more     

I need to improve my water intake, decrease my intake of fat, try to include more and more fruits and vegetables in my diet, drink skim milk every day or select low fat milk alternatives. I need to modify my eating habits by eating at least one dark green vegetable like broccoli, lettuce, spinach and one orange vegetable like carrots or sweet potatoes with no added fat, sugar or salt. I will eat grain products which are lower in fat. Drink 2 cup of 1% or 2% skim milk every day for adequate vitamin D. Moreover, for adequate protein intake, I should consume 2 servings of fish every week. I should cut down the visible fat from meat and consume poultry without skin. I should prefer roasting or baking cooking method to prevent from consuming additional fat. Try to use soybean, olive or canola vegetable oil and soft margarine and limit butter intake.

Poor eating habits will affect the overall wellbeing in long term for instance if I will not limit my daily oil intake according to recommended food guide serving then I will be on risk for developing obesity, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, certain types of cancer and osteoporosis. Fewer servings of fruits and vegetables cause me vitamins, minerals and other important nutrients deficiency. If I am not consuming adequate amount of milk, then my vitamin D requirement will be left unmet which is very necessary after the age of 50 when bones are start getting weak and fragile.

EXERCISE & WEIGHT MANAGEMENT

HOW PHYSICALLY ACTIVE ARE YOU?

My score range between 6 to 11 in the learning activity. The reason for low score is my activity level change since I started my studies. I have more of a sedentary life style. I walk very less because more often I go by car or use bus to reach college. After spending whole day at college and then rest of the hours for studies and assignment I am not left with the energy to do some sort of physical exercise. Moreover, my most of the time spend in front of computer screen and internet usage also contribute to decrease level of physical activity. As screen time and internet usage among students has increase it contribute to increase prevalence of sedentary lifestyle obesity. Decrease physical activity also increase body weight and decrease concentration span. Through the following strategies physical activity can be incorporated into the busy life of student: Identify the physical activity which is according to the interest level for example yoga, aerobics, dancing because enjoyable physical activity can be more appealing and maintain the motivation level. Take out 20 minutes initially out of schedule and perform any activity using college gymnasium, outdoor spaces that will increase heart rate, respiration rate and make you perspire. Using buddy system help build self-confidence and motivation level and through each other encouragement individual continues doing some sort of physical activity in their daily routine.

During maintaining the 24-hour food log I had consume 1230 calories. According to my age and activity level that is sedentary activity level I should not consume more than 1800 calories per 24 hour.

SOCIAL HEALTH(5 marks)

My family, friends, my positive attitude, my motivation level, good communication to have good relationships, be supportive of family members are some of my strongest social network. My social gatherings and spending leisure time hanging out with my spouse decreases since I started my studies and I feel that is due to my busy schedule of studies and job together. After graduating I will be able to spend some of my time doing some volunteer work, planning for having kids to start my family. Accomplishing one of my life goal and actual reason for doing HCA course to get entry into Canadian health setting so that by the time I get my RN license I will be getting myself familiarize with the Canadian health sector.

From few days, I was feeling that my roommate was invading in my personal boundaries like some time she enters into my room without knocking the door or using my personal stuff without my permission so, to defend my personal boundaries I assertively communicate with her to let her know what is important and acceptable for me and what is not and told her to respect and support my personal boundaries.

SPIRITUAL HEALTH

Spiritual health is the amount of peace and harmony individual feel or experience. I feel myself strong spiritually by having strong faith in the reality that GOD do exist and he is the one who have highest power to create universe and everything with in it. With this strong believe I will be able to deal the life changing situations in a more positive way. My prayers and meditation also associated with my strongest spirituality. By praying, meditation and practicing forgiveness I can feel peaceful, relax and closer to god. Listen to the inner voice and then take decision because the person inner voice is always right so stick to the inner voice decision. Laughing a lot so that I can improve the way I can feel toward myself and life in general. Spiritual health had a smaller link with the social health but still worth mentioning. If I become more spiritually strong then I have a kind perception and become less angry or frustrated towards others hence, I will be able to maintain good social health with others. My spiritual wellbeing help me to face life challenges positively and avoid those challenges to affect my relationships to preserve my social health. ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH

Global warming has become serious issue in our today’s society and it will only be changed when we do something about it. As long as people continue to rely on fossil fuels, waste energy, destroy forest, contaminate drinking water, our planet continue to suffer. Below mentioned are some of the sustainable strategies for protecting environmental health:

1. Deepening Personal Values and taking action: Reconnecting self with natural world so that Distinguish personal ideas and values to recognizing significance of nature in health and healing and to develop appropriate environmental actions. Besides, assess personal problems like time, resources or network that are causing hindrance in providing safe and healthy environment to clients, staff and community.
2. Understanding local environmental health issues: Identify sign and symptoms of environmental illness. Become aware of potential harmful effects of personal activities as well as look into the surrounding to identify industrial practices that are causing pollution or toxicity in the environment. Attend lectures, conferences, and meetings to better understand current environmental issues and strategies for improvement and then pass it on that information to the community people around us so that society as a whole contribute for better environmental health.
3. Engaging family, friends and community: When all the information gathered then start from the personal level by educating family then friends then colleagues about the importance of global warming, and relationship between health and environment so, that they take initiatives to improve ecological health. For example, if every individual by carpooling, walking, turning off the light and air conditioner, saving the gas and unplugging appliances like computers that are not in use, can save the large amount of energy. Moreover, working in joint efforts with local organization and community groups to promote ecological health in the community. Every single individual’s small changes in life will add up to a lot and will make a big difference.