A great example of the ...

The New York Times Personal Health section posted an article about kidney disease. But the opening two paragraphs say an awful lot about the need to have the learner teach back information taught. I quote: * * * * * * A patient with early-stage kidney disease provided a recent wake-up...

What does patient educa...

I’ve gotten a request for a topic to address here, from Chuck Jones: Value Based Purchasing benchmarks. I admit, my initial reaction was, “huh?” But that’s because my job is not in hospital administration; I’m down in the trenches with the direct care staff and patients....

Documentation of Patien...

Six years ago I published the article, “Three sure things in life: Death, taxes, and no documentation of patient education.” Unfortunately, it’s still relevant today. Searching allnurses.com, I have found the following reasons patient education is not adequately documented: “I...

Using Twitter to spread...

Would you like to share disease-specific or health promoting information with your patients? Want to send them news of the latest research relating to their medical conditions? Want to link them to local resources that can support their care and quality of life? One easy method...

Adherence challenge: W...

It’s hard enough for patients to take their medicine correctly at home. But it’s even more important to address this when the patient is taking oral chemotherapy, because effectiveness and safety depend on proper administration and handling of these medications. Once again,...

Another reason to evalu...

Yesterday I attended a Grand Rounds on sickle cell presented by Dr. Dorothea Douglas. She told a story first shared by Dr. Graham Sergeant, a field leader who studied sickle cell in Jamaica. Apparently, he cared for a couple who were each carriers of the disease. He told them that...

Sign on my office door...

Here’s a link to a photo of my office door. I posted a QR code that can be read using an app on a smart phone. This specific code provides ways to evaluate understanding, and examples of how you might ask the patient to teach back the content. http://www.flickr.com/photos/franlondon/5845144447/ I...

Blinded by technology? ...

I just leaned about a beautifully illustrated app available for the iPad. It’s designed to educate the lay patient about medical problems treatable with surgery. I’m not going to tell you which one I’m talking about because I’m not writing a review of the app itself. I’m...

Does how you view your ...

It puzzles me that not every health care provider is as enthusiastic about patient and family education as I am. Why isn’t is obvious to all that, after saving lives, our most important service is patient education? So I asked. I listened. I thought. I now have a theory: How...

Nurses can change the w...

Pfizer surveyed 1,600 nurses in 8 countries and found most nurses want more time to do patient education, so they can improve health outcomes. 95% of nurses surveyed want to use their skills and time to educate individuals about the threat and prevention of non-communicable diseases...