Lesson 2.5: Being a Healthy Consumer

Overview

This lesson focuses on being a healthy consumer, self-care, your medical history, accessing and evaluating products, the health care system, and communicating your consumer rights.

Learning Targets

  • Describe self-care and explain why it is important.
  • Identify six things that are part of your medical history.
  • Identify and describe three places where you can find health care services.
  • Use assertive communication while communicating your consumer rights.

Preparation

For the Warm-Up Activity: Write the journal question on the board, or identify (and copy as needed) the worksheets you plan to use:

For the Content Focus: Open the Lesson 2.5 PowerPoint slides, or make copies of the Lesson 2.5 Note-Taking Guide.

For the Lesson Focus: Copy the Lesson 2.5 Skill-Building Challenge Worksheet: Making a Consumer Complaint.

Warm-Up Activity

Select a warm-up activity to help get your class focused and on task.

  • Journal Question: When was the last time you used a health care service like seeing a doctor or dentist or being treated in a hospital or clinic? Describe where you went and what type of health care professional you saw.
    • Option: Write or project the question, and have students respond in their journals as they enter class.
    • Option: Have students discuss the question with a partner or in a small group.
  • Vocabulary Review: Have students work individually, in partners, or in small groups to complete the 2.5 Vocabulary Review Worksheet.
  • Quiz: Have students complete the Lesson 2.5 Quiz to assess their prior knowledge.
    • Option: Collect the quizzes, and use them alongside posttests to demonstrate student learning.
    • Option: Have students share their answers with a partner and then go over the answers together as a class.

Lesson Content

Review the content from the textbook lesson.

Option: Use the Lesson 2.5 PowerPoint slides to review the chapter content.

Option: Have students use the Lesson 2.5 Note-Taking Guide to review chapter content. Ask students to work alone, in pairs, or in small groups. Review the questions as a class if time permits.

Lesson Focus: Making a Consumer Complaint

  1. Give each student a copy of the Skill-Building Challenge Worksheet: Making a Consumer Complaint.
  2. Have students work individually to complete the worksheet.
  3. Ask students to pair up. Have students role-play by having each partner make their complaint about the acne cream to their partner.
  4. Ask for volunteers to share their complaints to the whole class.

Challenge Activity

Have students who need an additional challenge work on the following critical-thinking task.

Medical information can be confusing. What would you do if you did not understand something that the doctor was telling you, especially if it involved a treatment they wanted you to get? What responsibility do you have in this situation? What would you do?

Reflection and Summary

Review the critical content from today’s lesson. Review the learning targets, and ask students to answer each question posed.

Can you…

  • Describe self-care and explain why it is important?
    • Self-care involves all the decisions you make and the actions you take to maintain your health.
    • Can involve doing preventive behaviors like exercising regularly and caring for minor injuries or illnesses yourself.
    • Also involves following medical advice after seeing a health care professional.
  • Identify six things that are part of your medical history?
    • The name, dose, and reason for taking any medications you have used in the past six months
    • A list of all over-the-counter medicines, vitamins, or supplements you have used in the past six months
    • Any known allergies to medications
    • All shots (vaccinations) you have had
    • Any past major medical events you have had (such as surgery or hospitalization)
    • Your family history of heart disease, cancer, and other diseases (if you know it)
  • Identify and describe three places where you can find health care services?
    • Clinics and centers provide a wide range of services (general medical care, cancer care, physical therapy, nutrition, or wellness services).
    • Urgent care clinics provide same-day services to people experiencing non-life-threatening emergencies.
    • Hospitals provide advanced medical care and surgical treatments. Most hospitals also have emergency rooms for handling urgent, life-threatening emergencies.
  • Use assertive communication while communicating your consumer rights?
    • Being assertive means communicating your feelings and needs directly without offending others.
    • Use the following four steps:
      1. Share what you feel.
      2. Be specific about what is making you feel that way.
      3. Explain why you feel the way you do.
      4. Be clear about what you need.
    • Use this sentence structure: I feel _____ when _____ because _____. I need _____.

Assessment

Complete one or more of the following assessment tasks for this lesson.

  • Quiz: Have students take the Lesson 2.5 Quiz.
  • Vocabulary Review: Collect the Lesson 2.5 Vocabulary Review Worksheets, and evaluate them for accuracy.
  • Note-Taking Guide: Collect the completed Lesson 2.5 Note-Taking Guides, and spot check one or more items for completion and accuracy.
  • Skill-Building Worksheet: Have students submit the Skill-Building Challenge Worksheet: Making a Consumer Complaint and use the Holistic Rubric: Healthy Communication to evaluate their skill development.
  • Journal Question: Ask students to respond to the journal question again, adding information they learned from today’s class. Require a one-paragraph response that uses proper grammar.

Take It Home

Ask your parent or guardian if they can help you make a medical history for yourself. You may need to find old records from past medical visits to help you. Look over the list of items that are part of a medical history and include the ones that apply to you. Make sure to put a current date on your history and leave some empty space to add to it over time.