Patient Education: Key Concepts & Nurse's Role

Patient Education to Promote Health - Key Concepts

• Differentiate among the cognitive, affective, and psychomotor learning domains.
• Identify the main teaching principles for a patient, family, or group.
• Describe the essential elements of patient education pertaining to medications

Nurse's Role

• Foster patient responsibility for maintaining well-being.
• Encourage adherence to the therapeutic regimen.
• Identify types of information to discuss with the patient or significant others.

Three 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.
• Consider learning styles.
• Organize teaching, sessions, and materials.
• Motivate the patient to learn.
• Determine the patient's readiness to learn.
• Space the content.
• 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.

Learning Focus & Styles

• Repeat information to help master concepts.
• The environment should be quiet and well lit.
• Provide essential equipment.
• Encourage active participation.
• Fit teaching techniques to the learner's style.
• Variety of media promotes learning, like pamphlets, videos, models, etc.

Materials and Motivation

• Use objectives and an outline for teaching.
• Allow time to practice and ask questions.
• Review what has been taught
• Provide positive feedback when teaching.
• Determine through patient outcomes when more teaching is needed.

Readiness to learn

• Ensure patient’s basic needs are met first
• Depends on what patient already knows and motivation to learn
• Make the content relevant

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.
• Assess vision, hearing, short- and long-term memory, and fine and gross motor skills.
• Inquire about concerns regarding cost.
• Older adults consider the balance between treatment and quality of life.
• Use a slow presentation pace, allowing time to process new information.

Learning: Fear and Anxiety

• Provide information in small increments.
• Ability to focus on details is reduced due to fear and anxiety.
• Anticipate inopportune times to initiate teaching.
• Allow extra time for practice and review.
• Offer praise for efforts and highlight positive aspects.

Cultural and Ethnic Diversity

• Incorporate it by considering communication styles and beliefs.
• Communication is vital within any cultural group.
• Healthcare teams should ascertain the patient’s beliefs about illness.
• Adapt educational materials to meet cultural considerations.

Internet Use

• Common for consumers to access the Internet for healthcare inquiries.
• Internet information quality varies and must be assessed.
• Nurses should maintain an educational partnership with patients and caregivers.

Adherence

• Patients have the right to make their own life choices.
• Positive reinforcement can help promote adherence.
• Response and compliance depend on numerous variables.
• Beliefs, perceptions, lifestyle effects, acceptance/denial of illness, and stress.
• Additional factors influencing adherence are comprehension, multiple physicians, treatment costs, family support, disease control, side effects, expectations, fears, and physical limitations.

Strategies to Increase Adherence

• Overcome Challenges to nursing as poor adherence increases costs unnecessarily.
• Utilize Case management adherence guidelines,
• Tool used to help identify risk for nonadherence.
• Ethnography: used to observe how patients follow healthcare regimen at home.

Relevant Content

• Learning happens when a patient views information as relevant.
• Simple attainable goals must be set to build confidence

Therapy Goals and Expectations

• Aim to provide patients with the greatest possible degree of control.
• Assist patients in exploring options and encourage, do not let them giving up.
• Needs and expectations change constantly and require evaluation.
• Shared input improves goals and outcomes.
• Healthcare providers should contact patient for advice
• A summary of patient’s unmet needs should be written and placed in chart.