Elevating Patient Education through State-wide Instruction of Nurses and Patient Educators on Consumer Health Resources

Background: Patient Education is consistently cited by the Joint Commission as needing work at many institutions. However, with a limited number of patient educators and high nurse to patient ratios it is hard to find the time to adequately teach patients all they may need to know. The goal of this project was to create a course and online guide for nurses and patient educators. The course was approved for continuing education credit for nurses, dieticians, and health education specialists. The guide would serve as a central location for accessing consumer health websites and information for both educators and patients. Description: The Clinical Services Librarian and Outreach Coordinator at an academic health sciences center proposed a plan to educate the nurses and patient educators in the hospital on reliable consumer health resources. Partnerships were formed within the institution with patient and nurse educators, patient advocates, and patient- and family-centered care. Librarians created a course presenting general consumer health resources from the National Library of Medicine as well as other reliable sites. The course was granted nursing, dietician, and certified health education specialist (CHES) continuing education credit. Parallel with the course, an online resource was built using LibGuides software. The guide contains information on both general and specific health issues, based on local needs. The course walks participants through the guide and was piloted in local hospitals with nurses, dieticians and patient educators before classes were arranged around the state. Conclusions: The online guide was completed in July 2018. As topics were suggested at courses, they were added to the guide, including pregnancy/lactation, Women’s Health, and Children’s Health. The course and guide were well received. Results from pre- to post-tests showed an average increase of 20%. Evaluations of the course and instructors were consistently ranked average or above average including: having a better understanding of subject materials and ability to identify, navigate, and analyze resources. Future plans include continued expansion of the online guide and setting up courses around the state