Patient Education Notes

Patient Education to Promote Health

Domains of Learning

  • Cognitive Domain: Involves learning and storing knowledge.
  • Affective Domain: Involves feelings, needs, values, and opinions.
  • Psychomotor Domain: Involves learning new skills.

Principles of Teaching and Learning

  • Focus the learning.
    • Repeat information to help master concepts.
    • The environment should be quiet and well-lit.
    • Provide essential equipment.
    • Encourage active participation.
  • Consider learning styles.
    • Fit teaching techniques to the learner’s style.
    • Provide a variety of media for learning, such as pamphlets, videos, models, slides, photographs, charts, and computer instruction.
  • Organize teaching sessions and materials.
    • Use objectives and an outline for teaching.
    • Allow time to practice and ask questions.
    • Review what has been taught.
  • Motivate the patient to learn.
    • Provide positive feedback when teaching.
    • Determine through patient outcomes when more teaching is needed.
  • Determine the patient’s readiness to learn.
    • Ensure the patient’s basic needs are met first.
    • Depends on what the patient already knows and their motivation to learn.
    • Make the content relevant.
  • Space the content: Stagger the material presented in one session.
  • Use repetition to enhance learning.
  • Consider the patient’s education level.
  • Incorporate cultural and ethnic diversity.
  • Teach appropriate use of the Internet.
  • Encourage adherence.
  • Use relevant content.
  • Communicate goals and expectations.

Principles of Learning: Adult Education

  • Adults need to first understand why they must learn something.
  • Assess what the adult already knows and what information is desired.
  • Make the content relevant to that individual.

Principles of Learning: Older Adults

  • Assess vision, hearing, short- and long-term memory, and fine and gross motor skills.
  • Assess concerns regarding cost.
  • Older adults may consider the balance between proposed treatment and quality of life.
  • Slow pace of the presentation, allow time to process new information.

Principles of Learning: Fear and Anxiety

  • Provide information in small increments: Ability to focus on details is reduced.
  • Anticipate inopportune times to initiate teaching.
  • Allow time for practice and review.
  • Praise efforts and positive aspects.

Cultural and Ethnic Diversity

  • Incorporate cultural and ethnic diversity.
    • Communication is vitally important within any cultural group.
    • Members of the healthcare team should always try to ascertain the patient’s beliefs about illness.
    • Adapt educational materials to meet a variety of cultural considerations.

Use of the Internet

  • Common for consumers to access the Internet for healthcare inquiries.
  • Quality of information on the Internet varies.
  • Essential for the nurse to maintain an educational partnership with the patient and his or her caregivers.

Adherence

  • Patients have the right to make their own life choices.
  • Positive reinforcement helps patients succeed.
  • Response and compliance depend on numerous variables:
    • Beliefs and perceptions.
    • Effects on lifestyle.
    • Acceptance/denial of illness.
    • Stress.
    • Comprehension and understanding.
    • Multiple physicians.
    • Costs of treatment.
    • Family support.
    • Control over disease.
    • Side effects.
    • Expectations and fears.
    • Physical limitations.

Strategies to Increase Adherence

  • Challenges to nursing: Poor adherence increases costs unnecessarily.
  • Case Management Adherence Guidelines, version 2: Tool used to help identify those at risk for nonadherence.
  • Ethnography: Used to observe how patients follow a healthcare regimen at home.

Relevant Content

  • For learning to take place, the patient must perceive the information as being relevant.
  • Start with simple and attainable goals to build the patient’s confidence.

Goals and Expectations of Therapy

  • The goal is to assist patients with achieving the greatest degree of control possible.
  • Offer support and encouragement.
  • Assist patients with exploring options rather than giving up.
  • Needs and expectations are constantly changing.
  • Shared input into goals and outcomes.
  • Keep records of the essential data that are needed to evaluate prescribed therapy.
  • Write out information in a manner the patient can read and understand.
  • Contact the healthcare provider for advice.
  • A summary statement of the patient’s unmet needs should be written and placed in the chart.