Colostomy Care Education Materials Analysis

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Evaluation of Colostomy Care Education Materials According to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (2010), health literacy is defined as “the degree to which an individual has the capacity to obtain, communicate, process, and understand health information and services in order to make appropriate health decisions” (p. 591). One standard for nursing practice is to provide client education, which can directly affect the client’s ability to care for their illness and ongoing recovery (Smith, 2012). Within their health library, the University of Pittsburg Medical Center (UPMC) provides patient education materials for ostomy care, including “Care of Stoma,” “Colostomy Care,” “Ileostomy Care,” “Managing Your Urostomy,” and ”Ostomy Nutrition …show more content…

Department of Health and Human Services has developed The Patient Education Materials Assessment Tool (PEMAT) to help assess whether patient education materials are understandable. Based on this guide, the Understandability Score is 86.6 percent, while the Actionability Score is 83.3 percent (Shoemaker, Wolf, & Brach, 2016). Specifically, the material provides a clear purpose and is broken down into sections, including helpful hints, applying the pouching system, tips for colostomy care, and when to call the doctor. The first section uses bullet points for each hint, the second section numbers each step, and the tips section includes subsections on applying the pouch, changing the pouch, emptying the pouch, bathing, wearing the pouch, going away from home, and reducing odor (University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, n.d.). Finally, the last section uses bullet points to highlight symptoms which would necessitate contacting the doctor. It includes four figures showing how to apply the pouch, but on the printed version, figure three is cut-off between pages one and two. There are relatively few references to numbers within the material and the reader is not required to perform any …show more content…

Two other patient education materials on colostomy care written by Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and Northwestern Memorial Hospital are much more thorough and visually appealing. Although the factual information provided by UPMC is comparable, a few suggestions for improvement include (a) increasing the use of color on the website; (b) using a video to demonstrate how to apply the pouch system; (c) adding a section on frequently asked questions; (d) adding a list of support services, additional reading resources, and organizations; (e) providing information regarding the author and date material was revised; and (f) providing material in alternative

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