Patient Education

New nurses know that teaching patients is important. They also know that their shifts are usually so hectic that patient teaching comes after more immediate responsibilities, such as medicication administration and dressing changes. New nurses need to get in the habit of thinking about patient education as a way of providing nursing care beyond the here and now. Even more important, new nurses need to maximize the time they spend on patient education to obtain the best outcomes for their patients. Busy nurses often find it difficult to provide effective patient teaching in the current healthcare climate. As Fran London, a nurse, patient-education expert, and author, noted, “Teaching patients isn't rocket science, but it is a sophisticated skill that takes practice and commitment. Without patient education, there's very little effective healthcare with improved long-term outcomes”.

When nurses incorporate patient education into the patient's plan of care, they can improve their teaching effectiveness and increase the likelihood of optimal patient outcomes. Many excellent resources describe tools and techniques nurses can use in patient education. Yet it can be difficult for nurses to sort through the forest of available resources when they're needed at a moment's notice. Nurses are often required to think on their feet when teaching patients under less-than-ideal situations.

Patient teaching techniques

PatEdNet, StaffEdNet, and PIPELine are electronic mailing lists that let healthcare educators share and discuss patient- and staff-education issues. The overall goal of these three noncommercial lists is to improve professional practice as participants learn from each other. To add to the best patient-education practices discussed in this article, the authors asked subscribers to the three lists to share effective patient-education strategies they've used. (In the request, subscribers were informed their ideas would be used in an article to be submitted to a nursing journal on best patient-education techniques.)

By far the most effective patient-education strategy mentioned was to assess the patient and adjust teaching to these needs. For patient teaching to be effective, nurses must know their patients and individualize patient education. Busy nurses may think time allows them to give patients only printed materials. But as important as these materials are, they're only a small part of the individualized patient-education process.

Find out what motivates each patient. What's important to him or her? Motivational interviewing can help make your teaching more effective. One idea is to let the patient choose the topic of most interest, and then address that area first. Another question to ask the patient is, “What's important for you to learn?”

Based on the assessment of patient learning needs and styles, the education provided should use common words, readable materials (written around the sixth grade reading level), and various teaching techniques based on learning styles. For example, does the patient prefer viewing audiovisual materials, watching demonstrations, listening to instructions, or reading printed materials? It boils down to “involve, individualize, assess, and evaluate understanding.”

Teaching isn't a one-time event that occurs only at discharge. According to one nurse colleague, learning occurs every time the nurse enters the patient's room. Nurses should think about how they learned nursing skills. It took practice, practice, and more practice. Let your patients do the same.