Role of Family In Patient Education
Role of the Family and Patient Education
The role of the family is considered one of the key variables influencing positive patient care outcomes. The primary motives in patient education for involving family members in the care delivery and decision making process are to decrease the stress of hospitalization, reduce costs of care, increase satisfaction with care, reduce hospital re-admissions, and effectively prepare the patient for themselves care management outside the healthcare setting.
Family Aspects of Care
Family caregivers provide critical emotional, physical, and social support to the patient (Gavan, 2003; James & Hughes, 2016; Reeber, 1992; Reinhard, Levine, & Samis, 2012).Future projections indicate that the number of Americans who need long term services and supports (LTSS) at home will continue to grow at a significant rate, more than doubling from 12 million today to 27 million by 2050.
Family Need In Old Age
According to federal statistics, 20 % of individuals over 65 years of age need assistance from an informal caregiver with at least one activity of daily living, such as medication administration, and for those over 85 years of age, this percentage increases to 41%.
Based on 2013 data, it is estimated that the approximate value of services provided to adults by family caregivers is $470 billion annually (James & Hughes, 2016).The role of family caregivers is central to the quality of care for older adults in the community. Although the physical, emotional. and financial toll on caregivers can be great (James & Hughes, 2016), including the family members in the teaching learning process helps to ensure that the situation is a win-win scenario for both the clients and the nurse educators.
Family role enhancement and increased knowledge on the part of the family have positive benefits for the learners as well as the teachers. Patients derive increased satisfaction and greater independence in self care, and nurses experience increased job satisfaction and personal gratification in helping patients to reach their potential and achieve successful outcomes (Barnes, 1995; Gavan, 2003).
Nursing Theories of Education and Family Role
Numerous nursing, life span development, and educational psychology theories provide the conceptual frameworks for understanding the dynamics and importance of family relationships as influential in achieving teaching learning out comes.Although a great deal of attention has been given to the ways in which young and adolescent families function, unfortunately minimal attention has been paid to the dynamics of the complex interactions that characterize the aging family (Gavan, 2003).
In patient education, the nurse may be tempted to teach as many family members as possible. Realistically, it is difficult to coordinate the instruction of so many different people. The more individuals involved, the greater the potential for misunderstanding of instruction. The family must make the deliberate decision as to who is the most appropriate person to take the primary responsibility as the caregiver.
The nurse educator must determine how caregivers feel about the role of providing supportive care and about learning the necessary information.They must also explore caregiver learning style preferences, cognitive abilities, fears and concerns, and current knowledge of the situation. The family and the nurse may perceive the patient problem differently (Mauk, 2014).
Such difference must be identified so that effective teaching can be provided. The caregiver needs similar information to what the patient is given to provide support, feedback, and reinforcement of self-care consistent with prescribed regimens of care.
In some situations, a secondary caregiver is identified and also must be considered when teaching.Sometimes the family members need more information than the patient to compensate for any sensory deficits or cognitive limitations the patient may have. Anticipatory teaching with family caregivers can reduce their anxiety, uncertainty, and lack of confidence. What the family is to do is important, but what the family is to expect is also essential information to be shared during the teaching learning process (Haggard, 1989).
Challenges Regarding Family Role In Patient Education
The greatest challenge for caregivers is to develop confidence in their ability to do what is right for the patient. Education is the means to help them confront this challenge (Reinhard et al., 2012).The family can be the educator's greatest ally in preparing the patient for discharge and in helping the patient to become independent in self care. The patient's family is perhaps the single most significant determinant of the success or failure of the education plan and achievement of successful aging ( Capezuti , 2014; Gavan, 2003; Haggard, 1989).
Rankin and Stallings's 2001 model for patient and family education serves as a foundation for assessing the family profile to determine the family members' understanding of the current or potential health problem(s), the resources available to them, their ways of functioning, and their educational backgrounds, lifestyles, and beliefs.
Education is truly the most powerful tool nurse educators possess to ensure optimal care and the transfer of power to the patient family dying.It is imperative that attention be focused on both the assumed and the expected responsibilities of family caregivers. The role of the family has been stressed in each developmental section in this chapter.
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