A teaching module: promoting awareness of effective bacterial endocarditis prophylaxis in children

In an era of declining health care dollars, the preventive aspect of health care is a topical issue worthy of wider attention. Nurses can promote innovative teaching methods to further clients' well-being while meeting their educational needs. Teaching packages for educating the pediatric population, which include the child and his or her caregiver(s), need to be understandable, concise, and logical. A teaching module that was developed for a pediatric cardiac population requiring antibiotic prophylaxis for bacterial endocarditis is used to highlight some of the issues to consider when formulating an efficient educational tool to inform families about disease prevention.