Page 146 - KNJIGA SAŽETAKA

INOVACIJE I IZAZOVI U OBRAZOVANJU I SESTRINSKOJ SKRBI - KNJIGA SAŽETAKA

Days of Prevention at Čakovec High School

“Hygiene and preventive medicine” is part of the curriculum for the education of future general
care nurse/medical tehnician. The importance of this subject and the information it contains was
emphasized by the author through as many as three hours of theoretical classes per week
coupled with practical classes. With the rise in chronic non-transmittable disease in senior
population, and obesity in children and adolescents, prevention is an imperative in educating
the future generation of medical professionals as well as of those in related professions. We live
in an age of artificial intelligence, smartphones, availability of information, and even the latest
findings of world-renowned experts. However, do our actions follow the acceleration of
technological development? We were taught that establishing trust with the patient is significant
in the process of health care, but it is also important to establish a relationship with students and
encourage them to actively partake in caring first and foremost for their own health, so that they
would be an obvious example to their peers and in that way strongly influence the desired
societal changes in both young and senior population. How do we establish a synergy in acting
for the good of the population and have a positive impact on mental health and general
behavior? How do we motivate young people to invest in the future by investing in their
knowledge? Professors at Čakovec High School put their hands together in a joint project called
“Days of Prevention at Čakovec High School” The goal of this activity was to open up towards
the public, to make the residents of the Međimurje county aware of the importance of one’s
own health care, to teach them everything important in caring for their loved ones’ and their
own health. This project came to be as a result of long pondering on how students too can
activate in the life and work of their local community, and as promotors of health help those in
need and those outside the hospital system. Students with their professors organized
promotional material, each in their own group, connected to the topic they discussed. The goal
was for the visitors to learn new skills, especially those necessary for their own health care. The
educating was done by students under the supervision of their mentors. Coupled with examples
of bodily exercise, wellness and massage, they taught on cardiovascular and neurological
illnesses and on how to properly measure blood pressure and sugar levels. The attendees could
learn how to prevent diabetes complications as well as complications of prolonged lying-down.
They were also educated on how to provide first aid to the injured and to prevent infection or
stroke, as well as how to properly breastfeed. Finally, the team at “Little Hospital” educated the
youngest so that our parents and grandparents could attend the classes and workshops with ease.

Key words: prevention, education, mentors, students, local community

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