Assessment 2: Short Simulated Survey
Student’s Name
Institutional Affiliations
Assessment 2: Short Simulated Survey
Health promotion initiatives targeting older adults should aim to address specific factors that are preventing them from attaining improved quality of life. The best way to understand the gaps that an organization needs to address in order to improve the health of older adults in the community is to conduct a simulated survey. A simulated survey helps an organization to assess its current practices against the needs of the target population (Accreditation Canada, 2022). The information gained from such assessment guides strategic change that is aimed at improving services. This assignment will summarize feedback from a short-simulated survey conducted with a group of people aged 65 and above. The organization will use the survey results to develop an evidence-based action plan aimed at addressing identified health risks.
Survey Questions and Information Summary
Survey Questions
- Are you male or female?
- Do you have any underlying medical conditions?
- What specific types of activities do you engage in during your leisure time?
- Do you believe that regular exercise and healthy eating habits are good for your health?
- Have you ever heard about our organization and the services we provide?
- If yes, from where did you get this information?
- Are you enrolled in any of our leisure activities and community programs?
- If yes, are you able to access these programs easily?
- Do you find the various activities offered in the program useful?
- What improvements would you suggest for the activities and programs to effectively meet your needs?
- Do you take tea every morning before facing the day?
- Why or why not?
- Have you ever heard about our morning tea?
- If yes, do you understand its health benefits?
- Have you started to consume our morning tea?
- How likely are you to recommend our services to others?
Information Summary
An organization relies on the feedback obtained from a survey to improve its services and make its services useful to the target audience or population. The objective of the survey is to understand the gaps that the organization needs to fill in order to effectively meet the needs of older adults in the community. Currently, the facility is providing leisure activities as well as general information regarding community and support with morning tea. The target group are people aged 65 and over. The survey questions above will help the organization to seek further information and feedback regarding its services. The information gathered from the survey will guide decision-making regarding the best strategies to be implemented to improve service delivery for older adults. The survey will be distributed to the respondents physically in their places of residence. Either the elderly or their caregivers will be eligible to provide responses to the survey questions. The survey will be conducted through a face-to-face approach where the investigators will directly ask the respondents the survey questions. Feedback from clients and caregivers will be collated and organized into themes.
Systematic Research Approach
Evidence-based practice is a key competency that health professionals need to possess to be able to provide quality services to clients. Systematic research for existing data was conducted to understand the specific areas that require improvement to make the services useful and beneficial for older adults aged 65 years and above. The investigator searched major databases to locate relevant literature addressing the key areas of concern. The databases searched include Google Scholar, Medline, PubMed, and the Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL) database. The key phases that were used during the search include leisure activities for older adults, community programs for older adults, and morning tea for older adults. The review was restricted to articles published between 2017 and 2022.
Published literature supports the effectiveness of appropriate leisure activities, community programs, and morning tea in promoting health and improving the quality of life for older adults. Most older adults are usually socially isolated at home with nobody to talk to and interact with. The loneliness caused by social isolation increases the elderly’s risk of developing depression (Bone et al., 2022). A study by Bone et al. (2022) examined whether engagement in different types of leisure activities would reduce depression in the elderly. The specific leisure activities under study combined both creative and artistic elements. Examples include reading books, writing content in areas of interest, cooking, knitting, making clothes, engaging in sports, and attending social events and meetings, among others. Study results indicate that engagement in various types of leisure activities helped to reduce depression in older adults (Bone et al., 2022). These findings are relevant to the survey as they will guide decision-making regarding the use of leisure activities to help improve the mental health and well-being of older adults in the community.
Older adults can benefit greatly from age-appropriate community-based exercise programs and social engagement activities. Besides, healthy eating habits reduce the elderly’s risk of developing some chronic diseases such as diabetes and high blood pressure. Fien et al. (2022) conducted a study to evaluate the effectiveness of community-based exercise programs on the quality of life of older adults. From the study, the researchers found that community-based exercise programs designed for older adults improved both functional and physical health outcomes for the older adults. Patch et al. (2021) further discovered that in order to make community-based programs useful for seniors, it is important to engage them as advocates for their health. Tea has been found to prevent cognitive decline and delay the aging process. In their study, Hong et al. (2022) revealed that tea polyphenols serve are neuroprotective agents and natural inhibitors of brain aging. The evidence contained in these studies indicates the positive association between age-appropriate community-based exercises and tea consumption on the health of older adults.
Evaluating the Results
Overall Statistics of Survey
The survey results have revealed some health risks among older adults and gaps in service delivery that need to be addressed. The overall statistics of the survey indicate that a total of 98 older adults responded to the survey. 50% of the participants have not heard about the organization and its services. Among the 50% that know about the facility, 25% understand the usefulness of the services offered. However, only 10% of the respondents have already enrolled in the organization’s programs and activities. This group has recommended the expansion of services and extensive education of the elderly and their caregivers to enhance the consumption or uptake of the organization’s services.
Risks Associated With Findings and Conclusion
Based on the survey findings, older adults are at increased risk of three major health risks. These include depression, physical immobility, and speedy cognitive decline. This information will be used to design leisure activities, community-based programs, and dietary components that help to reduce the risk of depression, physical immobility, and cognitive decline (Bone et al., 2022; Fien et al., 2022; Patch et al., 2021). The key results areas included expanded programs and increased enrolment by older adults. Key performance indicators include reduced incidences of depression, physical immobility, and cognitive decline among older adults. The best timeframe that is relevant to a proposal from the conclusion is 6 months.
Application of Findings and Considerations to Practice
Findings from the survey will be applied in practice, not only to improve the services that are being offered by the organization but also to promote the health and well-being of older adults in the community. The specific actions to be taken must be supported by research evidence (Bone et al., 2022). The following plan describes the specific actions that will be taken to correct the root causes of the identified problems.
Action Plan
From the survey results, the root causes of the identified problems are the lack of information about the organization and its activities, limited understanding of the service it offers, limited knowledge among the older adults regarding the benefits of various activities and programs, and the limited number of activities and programs that do not sufficiently meet the needs of older adults. The best ways to current these root causes are to expand programs, increase awareness of the benefits of their services, and market widely (Bone et al., 2022; Fien et al., 2022; Patch et al., 2021). The specific actions to be taken include; adding leisure activities and community-based programs as per the respondents’ preferences and educating older adults and their caregivers about the benefits of participating in leisure activities, taking part in community-based exercises, and taking morning tea. Furthermore, the organization should use posters, leaflets, magazines, and brochures to market its services to members of the public (Hasanica et al., 2020). The named actions (what) should be implemented both in the organization and in the community (where) by the organization (who). The process of change should start immediately and the outcome should be evaluated after 6 months (when). For the survey results to generate long-term benefits for both the organization and older adults in the community, the organization’s leadership should push for the inclusion of the proposed recommendation into government policy.
References
Accreditation Canada. (2022). Simulated survey. https://accreditation.ca/training-workshops/simulated-survey/
Bone, J. K., Bu, F., Fluharty, M. E., Paul, E., Sonke, J. K., & Fancourt, D. (2022). Engagement in leisure activities and depression in older adults in the United States: Longitudinal evidence from the Health and Retirement Study. Social Science & Medicine (1982), 294, 114703. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2022.114703
Fien, S., Linton, C., Mitchell, J. S., Wadsworth, D. P., Szabo, H., Askew, C. D., & Schaumberg, M. A. (2022). Characteristics of community-based exercise programs for community-dwelling older adults in rural/regional areas: a scoping review. Aging Clinical and Experimental Research, 34(7), 1511–1528. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40520-022-02079-y
Hasanica, N., Ramic-Catak, A., Mujezinovic, A., Begagic, S., Galijasevic, K., & Oruc, M. (2020). The effectiveness of leaflets and posters as a health education method. Materia Socio-medica, 32(2), 135–139. https://doi.org/10.5455/msm.2020.32.135-139
Hong, M., Yu, J., Wang, X., Liu, Y., Zhan, S., Wu, Z., & Zhang, X. (2022). Tea polyphenols as prospective natural attenuators of brain aging. Nutrients, 14(15), 3012. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu14153012
Patch, C. M., Conway, T. L., Kerr, J., Arredondo, E. M., Levy, S., Spoon, C., Butte, K. J., Sannidhi, D., Millstein, R. A., Glorioso, D., Jeste, D. V., & Sallis, J. F. (2021). Engaging older adults as advocates for age-friendly, walkable communities: The senior change makers pilot study. Translational Behavioral Medicine, 11(9), 1751–1763. https://doi.org/10.1093/tbm/ibab098