Tilling the soil: nurturing the seeds of patient and family education

Improving patient care through patient-family education programs

The author's purpose of this study was to investigate patients' beliefs about the effectiveness of a patient education program. The authors interviewed general medicine and cardiac patients and their families at a large teaching hospital. They asked participants to describe the kind of information the hospital provided about patients' illnesses, pain management, and self-care following discharge and asked participants if they were satisfied with the information provided. The findings revealed that cardiac patients had greater access to information about their illnesses than general medicine patients. Overall, patients received verbal communication from doctors and nurses about their condition. All of the patients relied on pharmacological interventions for managing their pain and were unclear about how to manage their care following discharge. The authors describe recommendations for developing a written patient education curriculum, including information that addresses pain management options and discharge protocols.

Integrating patient teaching into bedside patient care: a participant-observation study of hospital nurses

Today's patients are quickly discharged from hospitals and often continue complex treatments at home. Patient teaching is critical and hospital nurses are encouraged to use "every teachable moment." This study explored and described the nature of integrating patient teaching into daily patient care and the factors influencing the delivery of teaching. A fieldwork method, conducted over 12 months, used participant-observation (PO) and a focus group session to answer the research questions. Three experienced registered nurses working on the oncology unit of an acute care community hospital served as informants. Critical attributes and patterns of observed teaching events were described.