Nursing Assessment: The Importance Of Patient Education

Teaching is a rewarding pursuit for nurses looking to share their clinical expertise with those entering the profession or nurses returning to practice with advanced preparation. One of the strongest motivators is that teaching provides an opportunity to influence student success and shape the next generation of nurses (Barbara K. Penn et al 2008). This concept of the nurse as an educator in nursing practise is nothing new. It has been an integral component of nursing education and training since the time of Florence Nightingale, the pioneer of nursing education (Myrick and Young 2005).

Patient education is the planned combination of learning activities designed to assist people who are having or have had bad experiences with illness or disease

Conducting assessments throughout proves to be of significant importance as it measures the effectiveness of learning, it allows the learner to develop an awareness of how they are learning, and to use that awareness to adjust and advance while accepting responsibility for their learning. To assess Karl’s needs of learning it is important to find out what he already knows about the disease; as discussed he feels uneducated about his illness and the use of an inhaler, he is determined to learn more to reduce the possibility of a hospital re-admission. The use of open ended questions in these situations encourages a full answer about how he feels and what, he knows about the illness. Questions such as “What are you hoping to learn about you illness?”, “what are your thoughts on using an inhaler permanently?” The use of such questions can assess his readiness to learn, it will develop a clear picture on whether he is prepared to make drastic lifestyle changes to better his health. The feeling Karl is experiencing is one of fear and of the unknown, as he will be developing a new skill; the inhaler technique which he will use on a daily basis to improve his health. Karl’s learning styles may be different to how another patient may learn, determining their learning style involves assessing how the patients learn best. Developing an understanding of what time of day is he more likely to learn, be it morning or afternoon? Also would it be more beneficial if he could observe the demonstration of how to use an inhaler and then carry out the technique? Within this scenario Karl is cognitively aware of his situation and is motivated to learn about using the inhaler; this is an ideal situation, where as in other circumstances there may be