Teach kids what to avoid for cancer prevention
Outreach uses visuals, interactive teaching
To truly impact cancer statistics, education needs to begin early before kids engage in unhealthy lifestyles that put them at risk for the disease, says Mary Szczepanik, MS, BSN, RN, manager of cancer education, support, and outreach at Grant/Riverside Methodist Hospitals in Columbus, OH.
There’s a lot of evidence to support her quest for early-prevention education. For example, if a child is severely sunburned before the age of 18, his or her risk for developing skin cancer is greatly increased, according to the Atlanta-based American Cancer Society.
That’s why Szczepanik and a group of nurses created an outreach program aimed at children in fourth through 12th grades that provides the connection between lifestyle choices and cancer. "We talk about things they can do to prevent cancer, such as using sunscreen, exercising, and eating a healthy diet. We also talk about the things they should avoid such as tanning beds, unprotected sex, and tobacco products," she says.
Bubbles mimic cell growth
To engage the children and help them understand the concepts, visual aids and interactive teaching are used. For example, at the beginning of the class, the person teaching asks the students to raise their hand if anyone in their family has had cancer. Usually about one-third of the room raises their hands. Then they are asked if they have ever known anyone with cancer and most hands go up. "That exercise makes the impression that cancer is a disease that affects a lot of people," says Szczepanik.
During discussion on the characteristics of cancer, a bubble-making machine is used to demonstrate the uncontrolled growth of cells when the disease is present. Students are told that a normal cell performs its function, then dies and a single bubble — created with a wand and popped — illustrates the normal cell. When the bubble machine is turned on, the bubbles can’t be controlled and land everywhere, which symbolizes the uncontrolled growth and invasiveness of cancer. The instructor scoops up some of the bubbles and carries them to the opposite side of the room to demonstrate how the cancer metastasizes.
Other visual aids include a picture of a professional baseball player before and after he developed head and neck cancer from chewing tobacco and had to have part of his jaw removed, and an overhead that equates smoking five marijuana joints in a week to seven packs of cigarettes.
The prevention of several types of cancer are each covered in the presentation in a visual and interactive way. They include skin cancer; lung and esophagus cancer; head, neck, and oral cancer; and cervical cancer. To determine the curriculum, Szczepanik looked at the top five cancers and then at risky behaviors and bad lifestyle habits that put children at risk for those types of cancer.
Script keeps lesson on track
The main difference between the instruction for the fourth graders vs. the 10th graders is the depth of the material. To meet the educational needs of the different age groups, the lesson plan was designed to be adaptable with three columns. The first column is the basic script content.
"We scripted the curriculum word for word, but we don’t expect everyone to say every single word. It just provides consistency and a standard," explains Szczepanik. There is a script for the fourth- and fifth-grade levels, a script for junior high students, and a script for high school students.
The middle column has additional information that can be incorporated into the teaching if the group is more knowledgeable than anticipated. If the children seem to be an educated group, the teacher can go into more detail. The third column has the methodology for teaching, such as the bubble-making machine.
Those who teach the outreach class on cancer prevention must have at least a college education and experience in oncology. "What we want are people who know a lot about cancer and know how to teach, and that is not always one in the same," says Szczepanik. They also need to be able to adapt their teaching style and class content to the audience.
While the class can be delivered to any group, including Girl Scouts or Boy Scouts, schools have shown the most interest. To notify schools about the curriculum, Szczepanik called each school district to ask for the names of their health teachers and school nurses. Some districts provided the names, and others suggested they send a letter to the district office and they would distribute it to the appropriate people. The curriculum is flexible, so it fits a variety of speaking schedules. "We created the curriculum so that it fits a time slot of 40 to 90 minutes," says Szczepanik.
Source
For more information about creating a cancer prevention class aimed at children, contact:
• Mary Szczepanik, MS, BSN, RN, Manager, Cancer Education, Support and Outreach, Grant/Riverside Methodist Hospital, 3535 Olentangy River Road, Columbus, OH 43214. Telephone: (614) 566-3280. Fax: (614) 447-0652. E-mail: [email protected].
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