Nurse as a Patient Educator:

¶ … Nurse as a Patient Educator:

In the modern healthcare system, nursing student or staff education and patient education is an issue of significant interest to nurses in all their settings or practice. As a result, teaching or patient education is a major element of the nurse's professional role since it helps the clients to be prepared for self-care management. Moreover, the role of patient education has been regarded as a major aspect of standard care provided by nurses as this role is deeply rooted in the growth and development of this profession. The achievement of positive patient outcomes is partially dependent on patient education that is both patient- and family-oriented. However, there are various healthcare trends that are affecting the role of the professional nurse as a patient educator.

One of the trends that have affected the role of the professional nurse as a patient educator is the expansion to the need for including an interdisciplinary team approach in delivery of patient education. The Joint Commission expanded it expectations to necessitate the need for patients and their families to engage in care and decision making and understand the things they are taught during patient education. This requirement has had a significant impact on patient educations since nurses must consider the educational background, levels of literacy, language skills and the client's culture when providing patient education (Bastable, 2008, p. 6).

The expansion of the expectations of nurse as an educator by the Joint Commission has mainly affected patient education through the need for these professionals to encourage the participation of patients and their families in the decision-making process about the client's health interventions and treatment procedures. Based on this requirement, nurses are increasingly becoming aware that the health literacy of the patient is an essential skill in patient education and delivery of improved patient outcomes.

The second trend affecting the role of a professional nurse is the development of patient self-management support. In this case, patient self-management support seeks to identify the most suitable strategies that communities can use to manage their health conditions through leading active and productive lives. As the overall goal of the cross-cutting session, patient self-management support focuses on the establishment of evidence-based self-management programs that incorporate goal setting, shared decision making, symptom management, and problem solving (Adams, Greiner & Corrigan, 2012).

Patient self-management support is described as the systematic delivery f education and supportive health interventions by health professionals to enhance the confidence and skills of patients in managing their health problems. These measures include routine evaluation of progress and problems, problem-solving support, and goal setting. In addition to helping patients undertake necessary tasks to live well, patient self-management support consists of tasks that enable patient's to have confidence in role management, medical management and emotional management of their health conditions.

The development of patient self-management support has affected the role of a nurse as a patient education since nurses not only provide instruction to clients that emphasizes on information and technical skills but to provide means for self-management support for the patient. Consequently, patient education provided by nurses should include the collaborative involvement of the patient in developing goals to manage their health conditions as well as problem-solving skills. Therefore, patient education should incorporate various elements that promote self-management support including evidence-based self-management practices and incorporate the significance of self-management to healthcare practice since it's the key to good patient care.

Third, the emergence of Health it-enabled care has had significant impacts on the role of a professional nurse as a patient educator. Due to the rapid technological advancements, Information Technology is increasingly used to enhance healthcare delivery and patient outcomes. Currently, information technology is used in the healthcare field because the modern healthcare system is highly fragmented, usually unsafe, and haphazardly evidence-based. Through Health-it, healthcare planners and nurses are required to develop and implement new, collaborative mechanisms for delivery of interdisciplinary care.

Health Information Technology has significant impacts on nursing policy and practice including the role of these professionals in patient education. Actually, the Information Technology development process in healthcare is based on the nurses' ability to understand the community and provide distinctive insights about patient education among other factors (Effken & Abbott, 2009). Since nurses are important elements of the healthcare system, they are critical in ensuring that the confidence of patients in the health providers is maintained even as technology mediates interactions.

The main impact of the emergence of Health Information Technology on the role of a nurse in patient education is that technology mediates interactions between patients and their care providers. As a result, nurses are required to ensure that the role technology plays in mediating these interactions does not affect the insights provided in the process or the delivery of improved patient care. Moreover, through Health Information Technology, nurses' role in patient education involves the coordination of the patient's care needs and helping these clients to navigate the heath care system. This helps the nurses to assume proactive nursing leadership in patient education that focuses on eliminating the barriers that may hinder the delivery of primary care to patients.

The fourth trend with impact on the nurses' role in patient education is the ever-increasing complexity of patient care. The complexity of patient care is evident in the fact that there are more acutely ill patients across various health care facilities. Actually, the number of beds in specialty and critical care areas is similar to the number of general use beds. The complexity of the needed patient care has been enhanced or worsened by the increase in the number, length, and severity of chronic illnesses due to the increase in the length of life expectancy.

The impact of the complexity of patient care on patient education is that nurses need to focus on health-centered patient education instead of prevention-centered or disease-centered patient education. In this case, the role of the nurse in patient education has been changed from wise healer or expert teacher and advisor to a proactive facilitator of change. Through this transformation, nurses are increasingly focusing on empowering patients to use their abilities, resources, and potentials in managing their health conditions. Generally, patient education is now centered on empowering patients to manage their health conditions rather than provision of health information to patients.