Edexcel Level 3 BTEC Nationals in Health and Social Care

UNIT 36: COMMUNICABLE DISEASESEssential guidance for tutorsDeliveryThis unit should be delivered by a tutor who is appropriately qualified in thebiological sciences, and preferably with some knowledge of internationaldevelopment.Initially, learners need an introduction to communicable diseases in an internationalcontext. This could be achieved, for example, with the use of videos/DVDs, followedby class discussions, to illustrate worldwide inequalities in health status and possiblereasons for these inequalities. Learners will have some knowledge of differences inhealth status between developed and less developed nations, probably gained frommedia coverage of major events such as famine or war. However, early study of thisunit needs to include balanced input and consideration of issues such as theimportance of education and other social factors in health status. This debate canthen be led forward to discussion and consideration of the worldwide distribution ofcommunicable diseases. It is suggested that learners could be provided with somedisease distribution statistics to be used in the classroom as the basis of discussionand debate. They could then be divided into small groups to collect further statisticsfor different named communicable diseases. This would also serve to introducelearning outcome 2, and learners could research different communicable diseases,then produce posters to form a class display. Presentations could also be used tofacilitate broader learning for the whole cohort.The list of suggested diseases is not exhaustive, and learners should be encouraged toresearch diseases that may be of particular interest to them.It is suggested that those learners who have not previously studied Unit 35:Introduction to Microbiology for Health and Social Care will need support in gainingunderpinning knowledge of the agents of infection and methods of transmission, fromlearning outcome 2 of Unit 35.AssessmentEvidence submitted for assessment should not significantly duplicate that submittedfor Unit 35: Introduction to Microbiology for Health and Social Care. Learners whostudy both units will need support in ensuring that their choice of communicablediseases is such that duplication is largely avoided.It is suggested that this unit could be assessed by means of one holistic assignmenttowards the end of the period of delivery. Learners will have carried out researchinto different diseases throughout the delivery period, and are required to presentthe outcomes of such research individually for the purposes of assessment.For P1, learners need to provide a written description of worldwide distributionpatterns of, and importance of, three named communicable diseases, supported bystatistics and visual images such as graphs and charts. They will have researcheddifferent diseases during the delivery of the unit, but need to ensure that evidencesubmitted for assessment is entirely their own work.BN018467 – Specification – Edexcel Level 3 BTEC Nationals in Health and Social Care– Issue 1 – February 2007 © Edexcel Limited 2007453