A curriculum for nursing in-service : patient education

Includes bibliographical references (pages 81-83)Most people agree that teaching patients is an important part of nursing care. Yet teaching in the hospital setting has generally been unstructured, casual, and inconsistent. Nurses have been teaching their patients for years usually by instinct rather than with clearly defined methodologies and objectives. Nurses have been inadequately prepared to teach their patients. A survey was conducted at Medical Center of Tarzana. A questionnaire was developed to determine the needs of nurses concerning the practice of patient education. From these results a curriculum was developed to help prepare nurses for their teaching role. This curriculum will be used by Medical Center of Tarzana for nursing in-service education. From the results of the project, it was determined that nurses generally have positive attitudes toward patient teaching. Most agreed that it was an important part of nursing care and one of their responsibilities. It was also determined however, that a large group of nurses felt less than competent in the teaching role. They felt they had been inadequately prepared to teach their patients. Most agreed that they were interested in more preparation in the area of patient teaching, specifically in the practical aspects of teaching their patients. The curriculum provided the opportunity for nurses to develop and practice their own teaching skills. The teaching process was applied to nursing practice. If nurses are going to teach their patients, they are going to need methods and techniques to enable them to include teaching as an integral part of nursing care