Patient education at 25 years; where we have been and where we are going

Abstract

In the past 25 years the theory and research base for patient education has become considerably richer. Definition of a core of educative functions has now been accomplished for most major disease entities or health problems, and standards of practice developed for a few. In the United States, there is very inadequate information about the degree to which patient education is delivered, and institutional supports for it seem to have varied with fiscal conditions. The reimbursement system for health care has not explicitly supported patient education or the outcomes it could achieve. While there has been growth in instructional approaches, it would be charitable to say that there is a broad and well-informed view of potential approaches or an organized research and development function to get these approaches on line. If predictions of patient focus for business and ethical reasons are realized, a major shift in environment could occur, supportive of patient education. Clearly, there is little evidence that patient education represents a mature technology or that it is delivered at acceptable standards to all those who need it. Patient education content in key nursing textbooks published between 1988 and 1992 is analysed to examine the degree and character of conceptual penetration.

Psychological preparation for patients undergoing day surgery

“…(Avis 1994 p. 294). Redman (1993) in an analysis of nursing textbooks regarding patient education stated the delivery of health education might not always be to an acceptable standard. This may result from patients' impressions of the nurses being too busy or the emphasis resting more with the medical information at the expense of nursing information (Fleming 1992, Cortis andLacey 1996).…”

“…Also, the cost of such a plan may not be prohibitive i.e. booklet production and resource costs, For legal and surgical consent purposes all patients must receive a certain level of information prior to surgery (Kaufmann 1983, Redman 1993, Kent 1996. The legal minimum requirements could become the starting point for both extended and simple information booklet construction as no criteria defining extended and simple information booklet construction currently exists.…”

Patient education in pain control

“…It is likely that individual barriers are embedded in a matrix of ideas, beliefs, and experiences concerned with pain and analgesic medications. Such beliefs have been referred to as representations or commonsense models [34,36,61], lay models [44], and implicit models [51]. Further, these beliefs have been recognized as fundamental to how persons react to new information and how they cope with illnesses.…”

Giving instruction on self-care during midwifery consultations in Japan

“…Patient education has been an important part of medical practice over the last several decades (Knowles, 1980;Redman, 1993;Tilley et al, 1987). Previous studies have mainly focused on evaluating institutional education programs using a cognitive and motivational approach (Knowles, 1980;Rasmussen, 1989;Redman, 1993), utilizing primarily quantitative analyses that deal with conceptual variables like patient's knowledge and compliance.…”

“…Previous studies have mainly focused on evaluating institutional education programs using a cognitive and motivational approach (Knowles, 1980;Rasmussen, 1989;Redman, 1993), utilizing primarily quantitative analyses that deal with conceptual variables like patient's knowledge and compliance. In the area of obstetrics and gynecology (OBGYN), research has dealt with teaching patients childbirth and child-rearing techniques (Stamler, 1997), in which patient education is recognized as a key element for providing quality medical care (Redman, 1993;Tilly, 1987). Research on patient-centered medicine suggests individually tailored teaching styles allow patients to administer self-care more effectively (Redman, 1993).…”