Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jul 12, 2026

E-Patient Counseling Trial (E-PACO): Computer Based Education versus Nurse Counseling for Patients to Prepare for Colonoscopy
Published on: August 1, 2019
An update on the representational approach to patient education
Heidi Scharf Donovan1, Sandra E Ward, Mi-Kyung Song
1University of Pittsburgh School of Nursing, Department of Acute & Tertiary Care, Pittsburgh, PA 15261, USA. donovanh@pitt.edu
Purpose:
To provide an update on the representational approach to patient education.
Organizing Construct:
The representational approach to patient education to guide a wide-range of educational interventions.
Methods:
Four intervention trials based on the representational approach are discussed: the representational intervention to decrease cancer pain (RIDcancerPain), patient-centered advance care planning (PC-ACP), an individualized representational intervention to improve symptom management (IRIS), and the written representational intervention to ease symptoms (WRITE symptoms).
Results:
Findings from these trials show that interventions based on the representational approach are efficacious. Results of these trials have provided information for strengthening the approach and extending it to novel clinical problems and delivery modes.
Conclusions:
The representational approach to patient education appears to be adequately flexible to guide interventions in different patient care situations, while also sufficiently structured to be replicable and testable.
Related Concept Videos
Patient-centered Care
Nursing Process for Patient and Caregiver Teaching II: Planning and Implementation
Nursing Process for Patient and Caregiver Teaching III: Evaluation and Documentation
Nurses can use several methods to evaluate patient outcomes. For example, oral questions can assess cognitive learning, patient...
Nursing Process for Patient and Caregiver Teaching I: Assessment and Diagnosis
It is critical to determine the patient's learning needs during the assessment. Determination of learning needs compounds data from the...
Techniques of Therapeutic Communication II: Focusing, Paraphrasing, and Summarizing
This therapeutic technique can also be used when a patient brings up pertinent information during a health-related conversation. The...
Models of Health Promotion and Illness Prevention II
The agent-host-environment model states that disease results from...

