Patient Education Notes

Client Education

• Client education is an ongoing, goal-driven, interactive process. It provides clients with new information and is a fundamental element of a nurse’s scope of practice.

Client Education Goals

• Health promotion: Any activity that works to improve a client’s health.

• Restoration of health: Any activity that works to improve the health of a client with an illness or injury.

• Adaptation to permanent illness or injury: Assisting a client to adapt their life to accommodate permanent health alterations.

Domains of Learning

• Cognitive: The thinking domain – thinking through information and being able to comprehend it.

• Affective: The feeling domain – involves the client’s feelings regarding values, attitudes, and beliefs.

• Psychomotor: The doing domain – the physical or mental activities required to learn skills.

Relevance and Motivation

• Relevance is the client’s understanding of why they should be learning the information being provided to them.

• Motivation is the client’s ability to engage in the learning process by deciding when, where, and how they will learn.

Factors That Promote Learning

• Perceived benefit

• Enhanced health literacy

• Ongoing client participation

• Nonjudgmental support

• Quiet, low-stimulus environment

• Repetition

Factors That Hinder Learning

• Fear

• Anxiety

• Depression

• Lack of motivation

• Environmental distractions

• Psychomotor deficits

• Physical discomfort (fatigue, pain)

• Timing

Client Health Literacy

• Client health literacy is the client’s ability to obtain, read, and understand basic health information. On average, health information is presented at a high school or college reading level.

Feedback

• Feedback is helpful information provided to the learner to aid in improvement. Nurses must provide feedback to clients during and at the completion of educational sessions so that clients know they understand the information appropriately.

Teach Back

• Teach-back is conducted by asking the client to repeat or demonstrate educational information back to you. This method allows the nurse to confirm that the client received the information accurately and correctly.

Effective Teaching Plan

• Elements of an effective teaching plan are much like the elements of the nursing process:

  • Assessment

  • Analysis

  • Planning

  • Implementation

  • Evaluation