Reflect on how your team has worked together so far. What role have you played in both a) your groups successes and b) shortfalls. What would you do differently in future OHP projects based on this?
I’ve had the pleasure of working with Leah, Siena, Mena, and Niloufar. I think the team members are all working hard and contributing equally to the project. We spent hours discussing the project’s goals and strategy throughout our meetings. As a result of my poor writing skills, I provide more ideas and visual design. Everyone on our team loves learning with each other, and we work effectively as a team. I believe that through inspiring the team, I assist them achieve their goal. There were some member disagreements at first. However, I believe that everyone’s circumstances and level of availability vary. But that is not a significant issue. As of right now, I believe that my team works really well together; everyone respects one another and works together to achieve the task. In my opinion, humility and listening to one another are necessary for maintaining a strong team. No one is the team’s boss; everyone is a team member. To realise one’s potential and reach the objectives, everyone must assist one another. For me, if you want someone to do anything, you have to be the one to start it.
Setting reasonable goals for each team member and creating clear communication channels are also crucial. Making sure that everyone is on the same page and working towards the same goals may also be helped by holding regular check-ins and feedback meetings. Teams may accomplish amazing things by developing a culture of cooperation, respect, and responsibility.
What barriers do you perceive will impact your ability to deliver health promotion within the community post graduation? Address each barrier with strategies to resolve them.
Administration, management, skill and resource implementation, participant benefits, communication efforts, budget influence, self-efficiency, and leadership are all aspects of success in health promotion. Based on these evaluations, seven criteria were identified: budget, communication channel, participant benefits, administration and management, leadership, self-efficacy, and skills and resources. My communication and writing skills may have limited my ability to offer health promotion.
Communication obstacles might indicate a lot of different things. Nobody is born with great talent, but practising makes perfect. The language barrier is what affects me the most. I was born in Vietnam and spent my childhood in the nation. I began taking English lessons from a Vietnamese tutor when I was 15 years old. My Vietnamese teacher had a big influence on my accent. Some people have a natural ability to learn and imitate the accents and pronunciations of native speakers. I regret not having inherited that skill. Even if I can vary my accent, the important thing is that people can still understand me. In communication, I attempt to be confident by responding to and receiving all the needs of the individuals I’m speaking with. As I talk, I try to record my voice. Correct any incorrect pronunciations by listening again. I will be a good listener, focus on what they are saying, make eye contact, exude confidence, and respond with a clear voice and courteous vocabulary when speaking with the audience. I also make an effort to immerse myself in the language by taking in English-speaking television shows, music, and books. I can learn new words and phrases from this that I may use in my own interactions. In order to reduce my accent and increase my general fluency, I have also discovered that working with a language exchange partner or coach has been quite beneficial. They can help me improve my vocabulary and practise having natural conversations while also giving me comments on my pronunciation and grammar. In general, working on my communication skills and accent has been a difficult but rewarding path that has given me numerous chances on the personal and professional fronts.
How has the subject of community oral health developed your confidence in health promoting initiatives so far? What excites you about oral health promotion?
The subject assisted me in developing life skills by teaching me how to create an oral health promotion plan project from start to end. I learned more about becoming an oral health therapist via health promotion; we must not only work in the clinical setting, but we must also increase our understanding of health definitions. Health means many things to different people, different nations, and diverse societal determinants of health. As an oral health therapist and hygienist, we learn not only how to treat and prevent oral disease, but also how to educate patients and the community on how to protect and promote health in order to prevent illness, empower them, and strengthen their knowledge and skills in order to achieve and maintain health. Applying the information gained from these findings to the development of policies and activities enhances the health of the impacted people.
Nutritional, healthcare, and economic inequities are all examples of health disparities. Because of variations in income, wealth, education, health, nutrition, space, politics, and social identity, low and lower-middle-income nations have the biggest oral disease burden (Blas, E., & Kurup, A. S, 2010). When we plan the promotion healt, we should consider the link between the social economic status and health concern. Approaches to health promotion can be classified as bottom up or top down. There are five major approaches to health promotion: medical, educational, empowering, social change, and behaviour modification. Medical techniques seek to enhance health through medical interventions, whereas educational approaches encourage self-efficacy and educated decision-making. People who are empowered are better able to assess their needs and employ self-efficacy to enhance their health. The settings approach, or social transformation, tries to alter society in order to enhance health, depending mainly on health public policies (Glanz, K., Rimer, B. K., & Viswanath, K., 2015).
References
Blas, E., & Kurup, A. S. (2010). Equity, social determinants and public health programmes. World Health Organization.
Glanz, K., Rimer, B. K., & Viswanath, K. (2015). Health behavior : theory, research, and practice. San Francisco, California: Jossey-Bass.