Using a competency-based approach to patient education: achieving congruence among learning, teaching and evaluation

Millions of Americans are living with, and managing, their chronic health problems. Patient education plays an essential role in promoting safe self-management practice. To ensure that patients attain the required abilities, patient education needs to be competency-based. When developing and applying a competency-based patient education lesson/program, each nurse must answer questions concerning essential competencies, optimal teaching methods, best method to evaluate patient achievement, and documentation of evidence. This article describes how the authors used these questions as a guide to achieve congruence among intended learning, instruction, and evaluation to design and implement a patient education program, Managing Heart Failure, at a local hospital.