Describe the nurse’s role and responsibility as health educator. What strategies, besides the use of learning styles, can a nurse educator consider when developing tailored individual care plans, or for educational programs in health promotion? NRS-429 Topic 1 DQ 1 GCU When should behavioral objectives be utilized in a care plan or health promotion?
As nurses, we have a duty to educate our patients. Not only are we nurses, we are teachers as well. Educating our patients on their diagnosis, treatment, medications, and alternative options are just the tip of the iceberg of what we can educate our patients on regarding their health. There are many resources we have as nurses to ensure we maintain educated on the latest evidenced based practices regarding our patients and their care. There are seminars, webinars, in work simulations, and other valuable education resources. Staying up to date on the latest EBP can ensure we maintain patient safety. “Gorard and Cook (2007, p.318) describe education as “a very applied field of research” and, like many other disciplines, nursing has a skills component which is a critical part of its educational process (Rennie, 2009) Phil Coleman. (2019) NRS-429 Topic 1 DQ 1 GCU. Education is a vital source of nursing. “The ANA’s 2017–2020 strategic plan emphasizes nurse-driven innovation wit”h a specific goal to stimulate and disseminate innovation that increases recognition of the value of nurses and drives improvement in health care.” Cusson, R. M., Meehan, C., Bourgault, A., & Kelley, T. (2020) A way that we can improve the quality of healthcare is to advocate for better education for our patients on all health care professional levels. We teach our patients and their family members without knowing we do so even. We are held accountable for teaching side effects when giving medications, the importance of medication regimens, healthy lifestyle alternatives, the importance of staying active, and many more. It is important to first learn what your patient knows about what you will be teaching them. For example; if you are educating your patient on their new diagnosis of heart failure, ask them, “So, tell me what you know about heart failure?” This will guide you in the first step of educating your patient. Also, it is important to understand your patients individual teaching style; or how they learn best. We all learn differently, so therefore; find out how your patient learns bestNRS-429 Topic 1 DQ 1 GCU. If it is reading, provide written materials regarding their diagnosis. Visual; provide informative and educational videos regarding their diagnosis. Hands on; teaching them, and allowing them to show you what they have learned. Also known as the teach back method. We start planning the discharge of our patients on admission. It is our goal to treat them and prepare them for their discharge in the earliest stage, to reduce hospitalization time. However, if we do not properly educate our patients on the reason for their hospitalization, they will most likely return. Therefore; education can decrease hospitalization in patients with major illnesses. It teaches what they can do in order to avoid readmission, and to expand their knowledge on their health.
Cusson, R. M., Meehan, C., Bourgault, A., & Kelley, T. (2020).
Educating the next generation of nurses to be innovators and change agents.
Journal of Professional Nursing, 36(2), 13–19. https://doi-org.lopes.idm.oclc.org/10.1016/j.profnurs.2019.07.004
Phil Coleman. (2019). Purpose, Quality, and Value in Critical Realist Research within Nurse Education.
Nurse Media: Journal of Nursing, 9(1), 103–116. https://doi-org.lopes.idm.oclc.org/10.14710/nmjn.v9i1.23485
Nurses are consistently working to prevent illnesses through a variation of tactics that include education. Education empowers patients to improve their health status. When patients are involved in their care, they are more likely to engage in interventions that may increase their chances for positive outcomes. There are many benefits of patient education, and some include prevention of serious medical conditions, decreasing the possibility of complications after a procedure, and reducing the number of patients readmitted to the hospital NRS-429 Topic 1 DQ 1 GCU. Effective patient education starts from the time patients are admitted to the hospital and continues until they are discharged. A nurse’s role and responsibility as an educator consists of taking appropriate opportunities throughout a patient’s stay to educate the patient on any vital information in the way the patient will comprehend. Nurses may have to adjust their teaching strategies to fit the patient’s preferences through videos, audios, hands on demonstrations, and reading materials the patient can understand. It is the nurse’s responsibility to ensure that the patient understood the teaching and that the teaching was effective. The nurse can confirm whether the client understood the teaching by asking the patient and having them repeat back the information or perform the procedure themselves. It is also essential that nurses educate the patient’s family members, friends, caregivers, or anyone that is involved in the patient’s care. Without proper education, a patient may go home and resume unhealthy habits or ignore warning signs of their medical condition deteriorating (The Nurse’s Role in Patient Education, 2018).
Nurses educate patients by promoting behavior change in current lifestyle practices and encouraging them to reduce behaviors that put them at risk and can lead to illness or worsening of condition. Behavioral objectives are the action that describes the behavioral change the patient will learn to promote health. When nurses create behavioral objectives, it assumes that the patient is willing to change. According to the Transtheoretical Model (TTM), behavior change progresses through six stages before change occurs which are precontemplation, contemplation, planning or preparation, action, maintenance, and termination. The stages apply whether the patient is beginning a new behavior or stopping an old one. By assessing the patient’s readiness to change, the nurse can create appropriate behavioral objectives for the patient’s current stage (Health Promotion: Health & Wellness Across the Continuum, 2018).
References:
Health Promotion: Health & Wellness Across the Continuum. (2018). [E-book]. Grand Canyon University. Retrieved August 1, 2022, from https://lc.gcumedia.com/nrs429vn/health-promotion-health-and-wellness-across-the-continuum/v1.1/#/chapter/1
The Nurse’s Role in Patient Education. (2018, March 22). ARKANSAS STATE UNIVERSITY. Retrieved July 29, 2022, from https://degree.astate.edu/articles/nursing/nurses-role-patient-education.aspx#:~:text=Why%20Is%20Patient%20Education%20Important,their%20chances%20for%20positive%20outcomes. NRS-429 Topic 1 DQ 1 GCU