Patient Education

Learning Objectives

 Identify appropriate topics that address a

patient’s health education needs.
 Explain the role of the nurse in patient education.
 Describe the purposes of patient education.
 Determine the appropriate communication
principles when providing patient education.
 Describe the domains of learning.
 Identify basic learning principles.
 Discuss how to integrate health education into
patient-centred care.
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 Learning Objectives

 Differentiate factors that determine readiness to

learn from those that determine the ability to
learn.
 Compare and contrast the nursing and teaching
processes.
 Write learning objectives for a teaching plan.
 Establish an environment that promotes learning.
 Include patient teaching while performing routine
nursing care.
 Use appropriate methods to evaluate learning.
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 Patient Education
 Educating patients is one of the most important roles
for nurses.
 Patients and family members need health education
to make informed decisions.
 Patient education is especially important in view of
current trend of shorter hospital stays, increased
demands on nurses’ time, and more patients with
acute conditions and chronically ill patients.
 Nurses are not only a primary source of information
but also often clarify information other health care
providers.

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 Goals of Patient Education

 Maintaining and promoting health and

preventing illness
 Restoring health
 Optimizing quality of life with impaired
functioning

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 Quick Quiz!
A nurse is planning to teach a patient after
cardiac surgery about appropriate diet and
exercise, and medications and their side
effects. Of what is this teaching plan an
example?
A. Maintaining and preventing illness
B. Learning about or coping with altered function
C. Promoting health
D. Restoring health

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 Teaching and Learning

 Teaching is an interactive process that

promotes learning.
 Teaching and learning begin when a person
identifies a knowledge or skill deficit.
 Teaching is most effective when it addresses
the learner’s needs, learning style, and
capacity.
 With successful teaching, patients can learn
new skills or change existing attitudes.

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 Role of the Nurse in Teaching and
Learning
 In patient education
 Create an environment to facilitate learning.
 Use a patient-centred approach.
 Assess the learning needs of the patient.
 Use the most appropriate educational strategy.

 To be taught: information needed by the

patient and family to make informed decisions
regarding their care

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 Teaching as Communication

 Teaching closely parallels the communication

process.
 Effective teaching depends on effective
communication.

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 Domains of Learning

Cognitive Includes all intellectual behaviours

and requires thinking

Affective Expression of feelings and

acceptance of attitudes, opinions, or
values

Psychomotor Involves acquiring skills that require

integration of mental and muscular
activity

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 Domains of Learning

 Cognitive learning
 Remembering
 Understanding
 Applying
 Analyzing
 Evaluating
 Creating

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 Domains of Learning

 Affective learning
 Receiving
 Responding
 Valuing
 Organizing
 Characterizing

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 Domains of Learning

 Psychomotor learning
 Perception
 Set
 Guided response
 Mechanism
 Complex overt response
 Adaptation
 Origination

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 Quick Quiz!
Learning occurs in many ways, depending on
the learner. In planning to teach range-of-
motion exercises to a patient after surgery, a
nurse should consider which mode of learning?
A. Cognitive learning
B. Psychomotor learning
C. Affective learning
D. Environmental learning

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 Basic Learning Principles

 Learning environment
 Ability to learn
 Emotional capability
 Intellectual capability
 Physical capability
 Developmental stage
• Learning in children
• Adult learning

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 Quick Quiz!
In planning to teach a child how to use a
bronchodilator for new-onset asthma, what
must the nurse first consider?
A. The child’s developmental stage
B. The child’s chronological stage
C. The child’s cognitive ability
D. The child’s motivation to change

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 Basic Learning Principles

Motivation to The patient’s desire or

learn willingness to learn

Ability to learn Depends on physical and

cognitive abilities, developmental
level, physical wellness, thought
processes
Learning Allows a person to attend to
environment instruction

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 Motivation to Learn

 Social motives
 Task mastery motives
 Physical motives
 Motivation and social learning theory
 Motivation and transtheoretical model of
change
 A patient-centred approach to patient
education

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 Integrating the Nursing
and Teaching Process
 The nursing and teaching processes are
related and usually take place concurrently.
 Like the nursing process, the teaching
process requires assessment, nursing
diagnosis, planning, implementation, and
evaluation.
 However, the processes are not exactly the
same: the nursing process is broader.

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 Integrating the Nursing
and Teaching Process
 Assessment
 Learning needs
 Ability to learn
 Motivation to learn
 Teaching environment
 Resources for learning

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 Integrating the Nursing
and Teaching Process
 Examples of nursing diagnoses:
 Health maintenance
 Health-seeking behaviours
 Health self-management
 Mastery of health-related skill
 Deficient knowledge

 When health care problems can be managed

through education, the foci of patient
education are knowledge and skills.

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 Integrating the Nursing
and Teaching Process
 Planning
 After identifying a patient’s learning needs and
identifying a nursing focus, the nurse
• Develops a teaching plan
• Sets goals and expected outcomes
• Works with the patient to select a teaching
method

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 Integrating the Nursing
and Teaching Process
 Planning
 Developing learning objectives
 Setting priorities
 Timing
 Organizing teaching material
 Maintaining attention and promoting participation

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 Integrating the Nursing
and Teaching Process
 Planning
 Building on existing knowledge
 Selecting teaching methods
 Selecting resources
 Writing teaching plans

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 Integrating the Nursing
and Teaching Process
 Implementation
 Teaching approaches
• Telling
• Selling
• Participating
• Entrusting
• Reinforcing

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 Integrating the Nursing
and Teaching Process
 Implementation
 Incorporating teaching into nursing care
 Implementing teaching methods
• One-on-one discussion
• Group instruction
• Preparatory instruction
• Demonstrations
• Analogies
• Role playing
• Simulation
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 Integrating the Nursing
and Teaching Process
 Implementation
 Implementing teaching methods
• Paying attention to learning barriers
• Illiteracy and learning disabilities
• Health literacy
• Sensory alterations
 Language
 Cultural diversity
 Needs of patients with severe illness

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 Evaluation

 It is necessary to determine whether the

patient has learned the material.
 This helps to reinforce correct behaviour and
change an incorrect behaviour.
 Success depends on the patient’s
performance of expected outcomes.

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 Evaluation

 Measurement methods
 Patient expectations
 Documentation

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 Summary
 Patient education
 Goals of patient education
 Teaching and learning
 Nurse and patient education
 Teaching as communication
 Domains of learning
 Basic learning principles
 Motivation to learn
 The nursing and teaching process
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