Nurses teaching family caregivers through health literacy and education

Family Caregivers

Some nurses not only have their hands full caring for patients, intervening with the right medications and strategies, following proper healthcare procedures, and providing leadership in myriad situations that call for healthcare services. Some nurses also have to learn to teach essential skills to family caregivers as well. This article published in the American Journal of Nursing reflects the challenges nurses face when training family members to become caregivers.

"Health literacy" is an important phrase when it comes to a nurse's job vis-a-vis training family members to be good caregivers in the home. Health literacy is the "…degree to which individuals have the capacity to obtain, process, and understand basic health information" (Nigolian, et al., 2011). That information includes what knowledge is required in order to make "appropriate health decisions" and provide services to be able to treat and to prevent illnesses (Nigolian, 52).

When a nurse realizes that there is a "deficit" in a family member's ability to provide proper care that is an important moment for the nurse because now more instructions, more training, more hands-on teaching must take place. And the article points out that almost a third of American households have had at least one person has served as a volunteer (and there was no pay provided for this effort) to an "older adult family member or loved one" (Nigolian, 52).

One of the best opportunities that a nurse has in terms of working with families so they can become competent caregivers is when their family member or loved one is in the hospital. Not only can family member provide "vital information" about the patient to the nurses and doctors in the hospital, family members have an opportunity to receive "intensive education" regarding the needs of the older adult (Nigolian, 53).

"Outcomes are better when hospital staff find time to collaborate with caregivers on discharge planning." Given adequate information about their responsibilities toward the patient, caregivers "report they feel more in control" and they are "less stressed" if they feel like they have been tutored adequately as to what they should do for their family member (Nigolian, 53). The risk of error is much greater if the caregiver is not fully confident that he or she knows exactly what should be done and when it should be done for the patient at home.

The point of this article is that one of the "primary roles" of the nurse is providing adequate educational information to caregivers. Hence, as mentioned in the introduction to this paper, teaching the public begins with the nurse learning how best to accomplish that important task.

While it is also important for other members of the healthcare team to participate in helping families learn to be good caregivers (including the pharmacist, doctor, social worker and others), "…it's the nurse who features most directly and consistently in the patient-centered relationship" (Nigolian, 53). Not only is the nurse the most important link in the chain when it comes to training caregivers, the nurse has the "role and the responsibility…to coordinate communication among the different practitioners"; the nurse is also responsible to "pull together the plan for the discharge needs" of the patient (Nigolian, 53).