Module Four

What sort of teaching is done in your professional role? Is there any nursing/health care provider role that does not involve teaching in some manner?

In my current role as a nurse at the urgent care (UC), not much time is allocated to patient teaching.  We see patients for an average of ten minutes each.   When I do get an opportunity to do patient teaching, something inside me ignites.  The kind of patients that we see usually do not have a basic sense of health literacy.  This means that I can teach something simple, like what quantifies as a fever or what the dangers of high blood pressure are, and we have jumped very far forward in their basic health knowledge.  This might prevent another costly visit to the UC by measuring a 99.2 degree temperature and the patient now understanding that this is not a fever.  Or in the case of the blood pressure, their life may have been extended 15 years by teaching them about the benefit of BP medicine.  I often teach about home wound care, the signs and symptoms to be looking for that would require a return visit or emergency room visit, adequate hydration, and Benadryl use.  Another form of teaching is explaining to patients and families about the procedures and medications that I do and give.  Involving the patient in every intervention is good practice for all nurses and health care providers.  There is no health care provider role that can avoid teaching.  All nurses and healthcare providers are in the healthcare field for the betterment of patients and therefore all must be involved with teaching our patients and colleagues disease prevention, health promotion, illness intervention, and follow up care.

Below is a link to a wiki article from our class for mobile devices that assist in providing care.

  http://editthis.info/nurs_6004_mobile_devices/Main_Page