Time-saving teaching techniques

Formality is out; blending lessons and tasks is in

Nurses would have much more time for patient education if they combined teaching with routine patient care, says Alison Reid, MS, RNC, educator/clinical nurse specialist at St. Francis Hospital & Health Center in Blue Island, IL.

For example, giving a patient medication is a perfect time to teach about that particular medication, or a nurse might teach about wound care during a dressing change. Teaching should occur during every contact, for there is no longer time for presentations, she explains.

There is not enough time to teach patients who are in too much pain to learn or cover points that the patient already knows. Therefore, a good learning assessment is very important. The learning assessment at St. Francis begins during the admitting process. The admitting nurse asks patients about their educational needs and identifies barriers to learning such as a hearing impairment. Although educational needs change and assessment is a continuous process, the brief assessment on admission provides a good foundation, says Reid.

Education should focus on the main learning needs identified by the assessment, she explains. For example, if a woman on the maternity ward already has other children, she knows how to bathe a baby and bottle-feed. Yet, she may be breast-feeding for the first time and need detailed instruction.

Find out what the patient is currently doing, says Nadia Evans, RN, CDE, patient educator at Nash General Hospital in Rocky Mount, NC. If a patient understands the low-cholesterol diet he or she must follow, then there is no need to spend time going over the information. "Always try to find out what the patient is doing at home before teaching," advises Evans.

Identifying barriers to learning is a big time saver, says Beatrice Wolf, RN, CS, MSN, CDE, clinical educator at Sacred Heart Medical Center in Spokane, WA. Rather than waste time teaching a patient who is too sick to learn, a family member can be taught. "Before we identify what topics need to be taught, we review all the barriers to learning," says Wolf.