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Tips for patient education managers
Want to become a better patient education manager? Here are a few tips from the experts:
• Be proactive rather than reactive. If you are only reactive, everyone else will drive your program of work. Know how to prioritize.
• To be effective and efficient, take time to reassess priorities regularly. Periodically reassess whether or not you are meeting your goals and if your priorities are still valid.
• Adopt a customer service attitude: "How can I help you accomplish your project?"
• Most patient education does not generate revenue for the system. Therefore, evaluate patient education to prove its worth from the standpoints of patient satisfaction, regulatory compliance, and staff satisfaction.
• To find the best way to educate patients, use all the resources available to you, such as journals, networking, and conference attendance. Also, conduct focus groups with patients and staff.
• See yourself as a connector. For example, when staff in one unit are trying to develop materials another unit already has, link them. It contributes to the organization’s effectiveness by reducing inefficiency and duplication of effort.
• If you aren’t a team player, become one. It is difficult to survive in the role of patient education manager without team support.
• Don’t waste a lot of time and effort by reinventing the wheel. Draw on what has already been done by others.
• Have a clear understanding of who your customers are. Sometimes they may be clinicians instead of patients, because clinicians encounter patients daily and need the skills, knowledge, and resources to teach.
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