Patient Education One Size Does Not Fit All, Research Paper Example

It is essential for advanced practice nurses to ensure that their patients are aware of their health in addition to the treatment options they have available to them. Furthermore, there are many clinical trial modalities that require informed consent before patients could be provided with treatment (Lin, 2013). Therefore, it is reasonable to provide patients with education programs that they could access online, either at home or in the office that will allow them to gain a greater understanding of either their own health condition or the treatment options they have available.

A recent study found that since colorectal cancer screening is lower than most health care professionals would recommend, physicians were able to encourage a larger number of patients to undergo the screening after their patients were provided with comprehensive screening information online (Tian et al., 2014). While this is a useful application for the oncology field, these findings can be extended to screening needs in maternity as well. Patients could be provided with supplemental resources after their visits to ensure that they have an understanding of the birthing process in addition to the information they will need to take care of themselves following the birth. This will allow the nurses to be sure that they have access to the material they need even after their hospital visit.

Overall, technology is an excellent resource that should be taken advantage of to ensure patient care. It is important for health care professionals to provide their patients with knowledge of their conditions or procedures, and this information delivery option ensures that these individuals will have access to this information following their visit and the time in which they have direct access to the nurse.

References

Lin GA. (2013). Patient Education One Size Does Not Fit All. JAMA Intern Med., 173(14): 1376.

Tian C, Champlin S, Mackert M, Lazard A, Agawal D. (2014). Readability, suitability, and health content assessment of web-based patient education materials on colorectal cancer screening. GIE, DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.gie.2014.01.034.