Teaching skills every staff educator should master
March 1, 2002
Teaching skills every staff educator should master
Patient assessment most important
While health care staff frequently are called upon to educate patients, they don’t always have the skills to do an effective job. That’s why many facilities create inservices, self-learning packets, and other tools that teach staff to teach.
For example, at Grant/Riverside Methodist Hospital, nurses can obtain teaching skills by attending four 30-minute inservices for nursing contact hours. The inservices are offered several times. In October, learning assessment was scheduled six times and in November teaching strategies were offered six times, says Mary Szczepanik, MS, BSN, RN, manager of the cancer education, support, and outreach department in Columbus, OH.
Three criteria are key
What skills do all staff need to learn? "The most important skill is to adequately assess the patient," says Szczepanik. This includes a patient’s readiness to learn, learning needs, and possible barriers to learning such as hearing loss or inability to speak English.
Szczepanik uses the situational leadership model when teaching staff to evaluate learning readiness, which allows the teacher to determine how ready the patient is to learn based on three criteria:
- willingness and ability to take responsibility for the task;
- recent education and experience in the specific task to be done;
- ability to set realistic goals.
When the teachers receive negative results in assessing these criteria, they must be prepared to use a lot of supervision in their teaching. They may simply give the patient one specific thing to do, making sure the patient is clear on what that task is and how to do it, says Szczepanik.
To assess learning needs, staff must be taught to determine what the patient knows, what is misunderstood, and what he or she needs to know to meet the goals of patient and family education, such as informed consent or self-care skills, says Fran London, MS, RN, a health education specialist at The Emily Center at Phoenix Children’s Hospital.
Determining the patient teaching strategy, or how to individualize the teaching, is another basic step that staff should master. Staff must learn to determine what type of teaching tools, what method of teaching would work best, and what information should be taught first, says London. (To learn how to evaluate the patient teaching skills of staff, see "Are your staff competent teachers," in this issue.)
If teaching adults, staff should understand adult principles of learning, says Leah Kinnaird, EdD, RN, consultant, Creative HealthCare Management in Minneapolis. Adults will have a wealth of experience with which they can relate new information helping with retention, but they need to immediately apply it. "Adults need awards just as much as children, if not more so," she says.
Teaching works best if a climate for learning is established as well, says Kinnaird. This includes both the physical and psychological environment. "Often, this means sitting down with the learner if it is in a patient room, reducing distractions for yourself as well as for the patient, and having a demeanor that engages the patient in wanting to learn," she explains.
Body language says as much as the words used, warns Kinnaird. Rapport helps create an environment for teaching, so it is a good idea to develop it with a group or individual before teaching begins. (To learn a few teaching tips, see "Every interaction is opportunity to teach," in this issue.)
Once a lesson has been taught staff need to know how to evaluate the learning to determine what the learner understands, what he or she can apply, what behaviors are changed as a result of the teaching, and what still needs to be taught, says London.
The importance of documenting the assessment, teaching, and learning evaluation so that the information is shared with health care providers over the continuum of care needs to be stressed. Information on the most effective teaching methods for the patient as well as what he or she knows and still needs to learn should be included in the documentation process, says London.
Staff should be taught that they are accountable for adherence to the Joint Commission standards for patient teaching, and that documentation is proof of that adherence. Documentation of teaching also is important for legal protection as well, says Szczepanik.
Sources
For more information about training staff to teach, contact:
- Leah Kinnaird, EdD, RN, Consultant, Creative HealthCare Management, Minneapolis. Telephone: (800) 728-7766. E-mail: [email protected].
- Fran London, MS, RN, Health Education Specialist, The Emily Center, Phoenix Children’s Hospital, 909 E. Brill St., Phoenix, AZ 85006. Telephone: (602) 239-2820. E-mail: [email protected].
- Mary Szczepanik, MS, BSN, RN, Manager, Cancer Education, Support and Outreach, Grant/Riverside Methodist Hospital, 3535 Olentangy River Road, Columbus, OH 43214. Telephone: (614) 566-3280. E-mail: [email protected].
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