RN Evaluation of Errorless Methods in Teaching Discharge Medications to Cognitively Challenged Patients

To identify (1) effectiveness of current registered nurse (RN) strategies in teaching discharge medications to cognitively challenged patients and (2) whether errorless teaching/learning (ETL) with pictorial medication cards improves such instruction.

Cross-sectional, qualitative, pretest/posttest.

Open-ended interviews and a class on ETL were conducted with a purposive sample of 10 expert staff RNs from rehabilitation and neurological telemetry units in a 377-bed, not-for-profit hospital. Data were analyzed using content analysis.

Informants reported current practices that were not adapted for the cognitively challenged population (n = 10). They also found the new ETL easy, effective, and useful in promoting safety and satisfaction but reported that writing on the cards was too time-consuming (n = 7).

Although not generalizable, outcomes suggest value in revising and evaluating ETL with a pictorial card for teaching this population.

Discharge medication knowledge is critical to safe self-management, and using ETL with cognitively challenged persons may promote learning.