Nursing Care Issue
Nurses are ineffective at providing patient education and consultation about the medical care that is being received. The information is often presented via standard recitation and may be incomplete or too complicated for the patient to comprehend. A vast majority of nurses do not believe patient education is their responsibility nor understand its critical importance. Health organizations do not focus on the value of patient education.
Outcome
A competent education approach helps patients to have an understanding and change behaviors in order to promote their health. Patient outcomes and satisfaction, as well as the quality of the received treatment, becomes enhanced through patient education. The absence of proper patient education can have significant impacts. There is a decline in adherence to treatment, proper medication intake, follow-up visits, and increases the possibility of adverse events. The patient and their family lack an understanding and self-efficacy about the medical condition which is needed to establish proper lifestyle changes, reduce anxiety, and decline of health literacy. Finally, patient education can reduce the length of stay and rate of rehospitalization which impacts healthcare expenses (Livne, Peterfreund, & Sheps, 2017).
Details of the Issue
Patient education is reflective of the quality of care that is provided by a health system. It is a critical component that provides patient, social, and professional benefits. Most facilities where patient education is suffering as part of the nursing care component exemplify similar themes. There is no value put towards education from both, the organization and nurses themselves. It is not enabled as part of the culture; therefore, resources or training are not provided for support. Nurses are redirected toward duties which are seen as more productive or profitable for the health organization. There is a lack of interdisciplinary cooperation, and in many hospitals, that are power-dominated by physicians, nurses feel like they should not be involved in any process of decision-making with the patients. It is part of a broader problem with the lack of communication skills between colleagues and with patients, leading to a weak relay of information. Nurses fail to recognize individual patients’ educational needs and lack the motivational factors to competently approach this responsibility which falls within the fundamental rights of hospital visitors (Farahani, Mohammadi, Ahmadi, & Mohammadi, 2013). This nursing issue is caused by a complex combination of professional skill and workplace factors, which are in place universally in almost all hospitals to create barriers to patient education.
Reason Issue Selected
This issue has been selected because it remains a prominent nursing care problem with significant patient outcomes. Despite the much more considerable attention that national nursing associations and health systems have been aiming at promoting patient education, it remains a largely overlooked issue due to the level of organizational capacity and resources which are being invested by hospitals. While staffing and time management are contributing factors, there are issues of nurses’ attitude towards the responsibility. While they do hold meetings with patients and families, in most departments it is not done with a competent and considerable approach that leads to the necessary outcomes. It is a process which requires medical knowledge and logical thinking combined with being emotionally attuned to the patients who are experiencing worry and anxiety about personal health and an unfamiliar situation. Therefore, this care issue requires more research and should be a priority investment by hospitals to create training opportunities for nurses to exceed in the patient education aspect of their job.
References
Livne, Y., Peterfreund, I., & Sheps, J. (2017). Barriers to patient education and their relationship to nurses’ perceptions of patient education climate. Clinical Nursing Studies, 5(4), 65-72.
Farahani, M., Mohammadi, E., Ahmadi, F., & Mohammadi, N. (2013). Factors influencing the patient education: A qualitative research. Iranian Journal of Nursing and Midwifery Research, 18(2), 133-139.