Advances in the Delivery of Patient Education In Nursing

Patient Education In Nursing and Advances in the Delivery Education System

Advances in the Delivery of Patient Education,New Areas of Need In Nursing Education,Genetics Literacy an Patient Education In Nursing.

Advances in the Delivery of Patient Education

    The benefits that education can bring are constantly expanding to new groups of patients, frequently requiring specialists who will ensure delivery of these services. 

    These opportunities become available because research documents patient needs (congenital heart disease, urinary incontinence), a standard of care becomes clear (recovery from whiplash, diabetes), or new provider roles and delivery of care patterns are tested (low birth weight infants, high risk pregnancy, elders with cardiac diagnoses).

New Areas of Need In Nursing Education

    Like much back pain, after clinical assessment to rule out fractures or dislocation, patient information on whiplash injury should focus on its self-limiting nature, with advice to return to normal activities as soon as possible. Collars, rest, and negative beliefs are believed to delay recovery and contribute to chronicity. 

    Patients are commonly frightened of movement and pain. Headache, arm pain, jaw pain, and dizziness are common and, it is suggested, are not areas of concern. 

    Evidence also suggests that development of chronic symptoms is influenced by psychological, social, or cultural factors. There is almost no patient education literature on whiplash. A randomized clinical trial (RCT) should rigorously test whether delivery of this advice to patients results in improved outcomes (McClune, Burton, & Waddell, 2002).

    Congenital heart disease is in many cases a chronic disorder because of the residual effects and sequel of corrective or palliative procedures. These patients are thus prone to complications such as atrial arrhythmias, bacterial endocarditis, congestive heart failure, or pulmonary vascular disease. 

    Adult patients with congenital heart disease have been found lacking in knowledge about their disease, treatment, and prevention of complications. Yet, understanding is associated with less distress and confusion, more satisfaction with care, and an improved emotional state.

    One study (Kamphuis, Verloove Vanhorick, Vogels, Ouenkamp, & Vlieder, 2002) showed that a minority of patients with mild lesions and a majority of those with complex anomalies experienced difficulties in daily life directly related to their cardiac disease and felt they were insufficiently informed about their disease. 

    Another study has shown poor understanding of symptoms of deterioration of the heart disease, risk factors of endocarditis, influence of smoking and alcohol on the heart disease, and the hereditary nature of the condition (Moons et al., 2001).

Genetics Literacy an Patient Education In Nursing 

    Genetics is the study of biological variation. Today, patients and families must be able to evaluate the credibility of genetic information that has implications for personal health. Many genetic misconceptions exist. In the example of breast cancer, people believed that genes are inherited in groups, so an individual who shows more resemblance in personality or physical appearance with relatives who have the disease is perceived to be more likely to develop the disease (Decruyenaere et al., 2000). 

    In a family with familial adenomatouspolyposis, members were not reassured with a blood test and requested to continue to have bowel screening. They didn't understand how a blood test works to predict a disease located in the bowel (Michie, Smith, Senior, & Marteau, 2003). 

    Studies in the United Kingdom showed widespread beliefs that cancer may skip a generation, physical and character resemblances are related to those in a family who are affected and those who are not, and a person is likely to develop cancer at the same age as it developed in their nearest relative who had the disease. In addition, they had difficulty appreciating inheritance of breast or ovarian cancer via male family members (Meiser et al., 2001).

    Cultural factors also affect understanding of genetic issues and acceptance of approaches to dealing with them. In Asian and Middle Eastern cultures, genetic counseling is less than acceptable because it involves disclosure of private and shameful (cancer) information to strangers. 

    In Cambodia, some believe that a forebear, through his or her actions, can create a disease that will be transmitted to the offspring, to emerge in the second or third generations (Meiser et al., 2001), Clearly, work on genetic literacy has just begun.