Educational Assessment Assignment
Sarah T. Duque
Farmingdale State College

Table of Contents

Educational Assessment Assignment 3
Needs 3
Style 4 Readiness to Learn 5 Objectives 5 Method. 6
References 8

Educational Assessment Assignment
It is a nurse’s duty to educate patients and families in order to promote health and wellness. There are several contributing factors that make this process both challenging and rewarding. Educational assessments allow for the learning process to commence by: identifying the learners needs, identifying the learners learning style, and by identifying variables that may affect an individual’s readiness to learn. Once these basic assessments are completed and documented the nurse may then formulate appropriate learning objectives and even select an instructional method to carry out a teaching plan. Without these pivotal steps, the learning process will fail to benefit the patient and ensure maximum healthcare maintenance.
Needs
I interviewed my boyfriend and assessed his educational needs for his Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD). Before identifying a patient or loved ones learning needs it is important to collect data on the potential learner in order to provide teaching that is tailored to that specific individual. My boyfriend was diagnosed with OCD and other Pervasive Developmental Disorders (PDD) at around the age of four where he began to receive services through his school district to help support him in his general education/nonrestrictive learning environment. He was also prescribed medications such as stimulants and antidepressants to help with his ritualistic behavior and his distractibility/hyperactivity. Eventually as a young adult my boyfriend discontinued his medication, but sustained his regular visits with his psychiatrist. At around the age of twenty-two he decided to approach his life unaccompanied by any support from his therapist or other specialists autonomously. Now at twenty-seven my boyfriend is fully functional, however he is still plagued by his OCD. After countless counseling sessions, and years of medication this begs the questions, “What is preventing him from really getting a hold on this?” “What are his individual learning needs?” I assessed my boyfriend’s learning needs by looking for gaps in his knowledge. These gaps in knowledge that are between a desired level of performance and an actual level of performance identify a need for learning/teaching. (Bastable 116) I assessed his needs through first informal conversation and then transitioned to a structured interview. My attitude towards my boyfriend’s OCD is usually very playful, only to maintain a light hearted milieu at home and avoid insecurities. When I decided to conduct this interview however; I asked him a simple question. I said, “Does it bother you to have to do these things?” I was blown away by his admittance to wishing he didn’t have to practice these rituals throughout his day. I conducted my interview in our apartment where there was adequate lighting, little noise and distractions, and a sense of safety and security. Bastable stresses the importance of an appropriate environment when identifying your learner’s needs. I then asked if he had ever tried contracting with himself and only ritualize a portion of his day. My boyfriend quickly filled me in on techniques him and his therapist tried over the years. I started noticing some inconsistencies with what my boyfriend knew about his OCD and with what is currently evidence based. I drew several questions from a questionnaire used at South Oaks Hospital for patients with anxiety based disorders and covered the following areas: past medical history, diagnosis, treatment, and triggers.
Style
When interpreting the data collected from my interview, I took my boyfriend’s learning style into account. At the age of five he was able to play a miniature sized guitar