Patient Teaching Strategies

Along with tending to patients' needs, nurses and other healthcare professionals must work to ensure that patients are fully informed of their condition and the treatment which may be used in caring for them. By educating patients, healthcare professionals can ensure that they are aware of their specific needs and know the implications of potential treatment options. Numerous techniques can be used to educate patients and prepare them to make informed decisions about their health.

Computer Aided Teaching

• With computer-aided training, healthcare professionals can tailor training to a patient's individual needs, says CancerCare, a non-profit organization. By purchasing or preparing digital training materials, healthcare professionals can offer a computer or other output device for patients This would allow them to view the training materials in the hospital. Or the professionals can give them copies of the training materials to take home and view at a later date. Many companies offer patient education information for sale. Healthcare facilities also can create their own materials. They might, for instance, develop presentations or digital movies about the healthcare topics. If healthcare professionals give patients a copy of the training materials, patients can refer to the material as necessary.

Video Education

• Video education techniques allow healthcare facilities to ensure that patients receive the necessary education without dedicating the manpower to provide the information in a one-on-one setting. Healthcare providers can simply select and play the necessary video lessons for their patients and check with them laterto clear up any misunderstanding or provide any additional information necessary.

Demonstration

• Demonstration is one of the most effective patient-education techniques. While showing patients how to complete healthcare tasks in a one-on-one setting, healthcare providers can ensure that patients fully understand how to do necessary health maintenance tasks. While this technique does require more time and manpower, this technique ensures that patients fully understand the information and allows patients to feel that they are valued.

Picture-Based Teaching

• By providing patients with picture instructions or explanations, healthcare professionals can ensure that they understand the information regardless of their reading abilities. Healthcare professionals can create a series of pictures, similar to comic strips, that detail each step in a healthcare procedure. This makes the complex procedure more comprehensible. This ensures that their patients fully understand each step. Healthcare providers can provide patients with copies of these instructional images, or keep them posted in the patients' rooms so that they can look at them if they need clarification.