Missed nursing care in patient education: A qualitative study of different levels of nurses’ perspectives

Abstract

Aim: To explore the different levels of nurses' perspectives in the delivery of patient education in postoperative care. Background: Patient education is a frequently reported missed nursing care and can lead to postoperative complications and hospital readmissions. Methods: Descriptive exploratory qualitative study involving eight focus groups with 35 nurses was conducted in an acute hospital. Interviews were audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim. Data were thematically analysed. Results: The analysis yielded three themes: 'Role ambiguity' between the levels of nurses concerning their roles in patient education; 'Not a priority nursing care' for patient education due to competing work demands and the missing workplace culture to teach; and 'Informal teaching' carried out conversationally during nursing care activities. Conclusion: This study augments the need to develop strategies, including informal teaching, to strengthen the delivery of patient education to avert missed nursing care. Implications for Nursing Management: Nurse managers and educators are instrumental in establishing role clarity between ward nurses and specialty care nurses for patient education, recognizing patient education as the next nurse-sensitive indicator in reflecting quality of care, fostering positive workplace cultures to teach and providing ward nurses with trainings on communication strategies to provide effective informal teaching at bedside.

A Validation Study of the Korean Version of the Nurses’ Patient Education Questionnaire

“…In particular, new graduate nurses showed lower perceived competency than experienced nurses in the nurses’ beliefs and knowledge, collegial teamwork, and interdisciplinary cooperation. Given the reality that patient education is not a priority due to competing work demands and the missing workplace culture to teach [ 34 ], new graduate nurses may face various difficulties in patient education. As new graduate nurses lack practical experience in patient education, nurse educators need to provide continuing education programs to strengthen their competency [ 12 ].…”

Does patient empowerment matter in building loyalty?

“…Thus, it is imperative to understand that in patients' trajectories, their interactions with doctors may determine their feelings of empowerment and/or disempowerment. Previous studies (see Alicia et al, 2020;Clark, 2014;Ippolito et al, 2019;Laine et al, 2019;Stenberg et al, 2019;and Yajnik et al, 2018) acknowledged patient education (also referred to as provider-patient communication) as one of the central aspects of patient empowerment that has been given considerable attention in the extant literature. However, empirical understanding of the effect of patient education on cultivating patient-doctor relationship and patient loyalty is limited.…”

“…Studies pertaining to patient empowerment and patient loyalty to doctors, in particular, have been largely disregarded. Given the importance of patient education (Alicia et al, 2020;Ippolito et al, 2019) and loyalty in building a long-term patient-doctor relationship (Lai & Chong, 2020;Torres et al, 2009;Zhou et al, 2017), there is a need for further research on the comprehensive role of patient empowerment in building patient loyalty.…”

“…As a mechanism for empowering patients in the healthcare industry, education refers to the process by which clinicians impart medical knowledge in the best interests of their patients (Jotterand et al, 2016). Patient education is also emphasised as the nucleus of health and social care services (Alicia et al, 2020;Clark, 2014).…”

Nurses’ knowledge, skills and personal attributes for competent health education practice: An instrument development and psychometric validation study

“…Worldwide, nurses are recognised as being well placed to provide health education to clients and families (and wider groups, e.g., schools) in both acute and community settings as they are the largest global health professional group and are often in close day‐to‐day contact with clients (See et al., 2020). However, nurses’ capacity and educational competency to conduct this role is frequently questioned (Pueyo‐Garrigues et al., 2019).…”