Patient education: a multidisciplinary approach to influence patient compliance

The Department of Pharmacy and Nursing should collaborate on a consistent basis to proactively implement and evaluate the patient education program. Although many hospitals educate their patients, the systems can often be fragmented. Unanswered questions may include how and where the education takes place, the method of documentation, and who specifically educates the patient. Selection of the best media for educational materials requires that the broad array of printed (i.e., manuals, programmed texts, booklets) and nonprint material (i.e., videotape, motion pictures, etc.) be considered. A multidisciplinary patient education committee facilitates the program at MSKCC. Approximately 50 chemotherapy fact cards have been used at MSKCC for six years. This program has yielded positive perceptions from patients as well as from the pharmacy and nursing staff. Future trends will probably include widespread use of interactive patient education programs to provide indexing, order entry, and documentation of patient education materials.