As a future healthcare professional or healthcare provider you will often be encouraging your clients/patients to embark upon a behavior change mission to improve their health. Chronic illness can often be mitigated by improved health behaviors. (ex: improved diet/lower sugar can reduce a diabetic’s risk, increased physical activity can reduce risk of heart disease and cancer) Advising and encouraging patients can be challenging if they feel you can’t relate to their struggles. To prepare to help others- let’s try it for ourselves! You will work on a multi-step assignment to create a Personal Health Plan for yourself. This plan will address an area of health that you would like to change for the sake of improving your health and boosting your quality of life.
(Reread your text: “Reaching Wellness Through Lifestyle Management” found on pg 13-23)
You may select any dimension of wellness or personal health goal. The mores specific you are, the easier it will be to set goals and measure your progress.
For example:
General Goal: Feel better/have more energy…
Specific Goals:
- improve quality of sleep, increase to 7-8 hrs/night
- improve nutrition to maximize energy (research to determine what that looks like)
- increase physical activity to promote energetic lifestyle
For this assignments you will create a plan for change, apply it, and analyze your results. This project will include three parts:
Part 1- Brainstorm, Information Gathering: A brief research paper about your health topic of interest
Part 2- Action Plan: A specific plan of attack for behavior change
Part 3- Reflection Paper: A summary of how your action plan went and what you learned
For further instructions see each assignment.