This challenge from a nurse administrator hung in the air.
It was more than a rhetorical question. Patient education is a cornerstone of care.
You see many patients in a day and have a high level of complexity to deal with. Your patient education is also expected to achieve multiple simultaneous goals, under increasingly restricted circumstances.
Yet when I talk to providers they also say they want their patient education to to make a difference to what the patient does, and how the patient feels, when they leave.
Time is short. Education is a complex endeavor. And there’s a great deal at stake.
“Patients,” a physician remarked, “don’t come standardized.”
Because of variations in people’s lifestyles, goals, and resources, a message that resonates with one patient may largely miss another.
For example, one anesthesiology practice I talked to had developed an educational intervention, with great care, and used it faithfully. Things would usually go well. But when they didn’t, the practice would often only find out after the fact. There were phone calls, emails, or negative survey responses.
Yet trial and error is not a terribly attractive alternative when it comes to education. For starters, it’s inefficient. More importantly, no one wants to risk leaving patients without what they need.
It’s hard to overstate how important patient education is during the medical encounter. I want to be careful not to oversimplify a very complicated set of problems. But it is possible to be more effective in your patient education–so you get more done, and the patient knows more.
HCP can help. Here’s how:
Start with HCP’s exclusive, free, research-based resources.
Effective Patient Education audiobook bundle
Our Effective Patient Education bundle just might change the way you think about patient education. Refresh your skills, and learn new approaches, in this collection of easy-to-use materials.
Workshops & faculty development
“You are sharing things that can make our lives easier. That can make our days better. That can help people be more efficient at communication so they get more done, and the patient knows more!” J.M., Oncologist
Onsite or Online
Image courtesy of Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health
“Rigorous, totally engaged! Dr. Liebel is able to take difficult concepts and not only break them down and make them simpler, but give examples that people who have no background or training in health literacy or communication can relate to.”
–Marita K. Murrman, Ed.D., M.S., Professor of Sociomedical Sciences at CUMC, Mailman School of Public Health Columbia University
Photo courtesy of Medical College of Georgia
“Dr. Liebel helped my colleagues and I appreciate that all of us strive to make sense of our world, and a significant part of our job as professionals is to recognize and start at our patient’s level of understanding. That insight coupled with Dr. Liebel’s synthesis of the research literature on effective physician-patient communication was helpful for us to further pursue patient-centered care.”
— Ralph A. Gillies, PhD MCG Associate Dean of Faculty Development, Medical College of Georgia at Augusta University
Our patient education support is based on educational principles that reach all learners and are culturally and linguistically appropriate. Our materials address health communication and health literacy concerns as well.
From individual patient relationships to population health management.
Make the most of your time and your organization’s resources. Reach your educational goals, no matter your specialization.
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