Short Communication
Teaching nurses how to teach: An evaluation of a workshop on patient education

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pec.2008.09.022Get rights and content

Abstract

Objective

To evaluate the effects of a patient education workshop on nurses: (1) communication skills; (2) Knowledge of patient-centered model, patient education process, and sense of preparedness to provide patient education.

Methods

Fourteen nurses attended a 2-day workshop on patient education based on a patient-centered model. Data on communication skills were collected by means of pre-/post-written dialogues and analyzed with the Roter Interaction Analysis System (RIAS). Data of nurses’ knowledge and sense of preparedness were collected through a post questionnaire comprised of 5-point Likert scale items.

Results

Post-dialogues showed an increase in patient talking (P < 0.001) and in patient-centered communication as indicated by the increase in Psychosocial exchanges (P = 0.003) and Process exchanges (P = 0.001). Nurses reported that the workshop increased “very much” their knowledge of the patient-centered model (mean = 4.19) and patient education process (mean = 4.69), and their sense of preparedness to provide patient education (P = 0.001).

Conclusions

Data suggest the efficacy of the workshop in developing patient-centered communication skills and improving nurses’ knowledge and preparedness to deliver patient education.

Practice implications

Trainings based on a patient-centered model and interactive learning methods should be implemented for nurses to improve their ability to deliver effective patient education.

Introduction

Patient education is widely recognized as a core component of nursing [1], [2]. However, nurses often lack formal training in patient education [3]. Assessing individual learning needs, individualizing teaching content and evaluating patient understanding have been identified as areas in which nurses would benefit from additional training [4], [5], [6], [7].

Furthermore, patient education has frequently been disease-centered rather than patient-centered. According to a patient-centered approach [8], exploring the patient's illness experience, for example, what the patient thinks about his disease or how he/she feels regarding his/her situation, is essential to providing quality care [9]. Exploring the patient's illness experience can make patient education more effective as patients’ interpretations of their disease may not correspond with the accepted medical understanding of it, and unexplored patients’ feelings may hinder the learning process [10]. A patient-centered approach has also been shown to improve patient satisfaction, treatment adherence and health outcomes, and all goals of patient education [11], [12], [13], [14], [15].

In March 2007 we developed a patient education workshop for nurses based on a patient-centered approach. In this study we report the impact of the workshop on nurses’ communication skills, self-reported knowledge, sense of preparedness to provide patient education.

Section snippets

Description of the workshop

The workshop was developed at a large academic hospital in the Northeast section of the United States and was open to a maximum of 20 nurses on a voluntary basis. The workshop was conducted by a nurse and a health educator and consisted of two 6-h sessions. (Table 1). A former patient was also present to offer the patient's perspective. Facilitators paid particular attention to the development of a nonjudgmental environment and the use of experiential learning methodologies such as

Description of participants

Fourteen participants attended on both days (Table 4). All but one participant were nurses. Of the nurses eight practiced in an inpatient setting and five practiced in an outpatient setting.

Dialogues

Fourteen pre-/post-dialogues were analyzed. As reported in Table 5, patients talked more and nurses were verbally less dominant in the post-dialogues (P = 0.018). Before and after the workshop, the majority of the nurse–patient exchanges were related to asking and giving information about medical and

Discussion

Our findings demonstrate that a 2-day workshop on patient education, based on a patient-centered approach, improved nurses’ communication skills and knowledge, and their sense of preparedness.

Studies evaluating communication trainings often focus on nurses’ self-reported competence in relating to patients [22], [23]. However, self-reported competence does not always indicate effective communication practice with patients [24]. In this study we coupled self-reported measures with a quantitative

Acknowledgments

We would like to express our sincere thanks to the participants of the workshop who gave us permission to use their work and to Joe Neis, who enriched our discussions by providing the patient's perspective. We would also like to thank Ann Hurley, RN, PhD, for her assistance in analyzing the data and Martha Griffin, RN, PhD, Diane Lancaster, RN, PhD, and Elena Vegni, MA, for their comments on the draft.

References (34)

  • M. Steward et al.

    Patient-centered medicine: transforming the clinical method

    (1995)
  • R.M. Epstein

    The science of patient-centered care

    J Fam Pract

    (2000)
  • R. Jayne et al.

    Application of Leventhal's self-regulation model to Chinese immigrants with type 2 diabetes

    J Nurs Scholarsh

    (2001)
  • D.L. Roter

    The medical visit context of treatment decision-making and the therapeutic relationship

    Health Expect

    (2000)
  • F. Tromp et al.

    Interdisciplinary preoperative patient education in cardiac surgery

    J Adv Nurs

    (2004)
  • T.S. Inui et al.

    Improved outcomes in hypertension after physician tutorials. A controlled trial

    Ann Int Med

    (1976)
  • S.H. Kaplan et al.

    Assessing the effects of physician–patient interactions on the outcomes of chronic disease

    Med Care

    (1989)
  • Cited by (0)

    View full text