Small card highlights instruction

Prompt provides self-care reminder

Staff at Fairview-University Medical Center developed small teaching cards that list pertinent information to help patients remember self-care skills upon discharge.

"Patients can carry the quick reference cards into the bathroom with them when they are doing a self-care technique and follow along rather than trying to find a spot in a booklet," says Nancy Goldstein, MPH, patient education program manager at the health care facility in Minneapolis.

For example, patients with a right atrial catheter are given a large booklet on the topic. However, the care instructions are listed on small cards that patients follow during the teaching session at the hospital and take with them when they are discharged. t