Using Learning Science to Optimize Chronic Kidney Disease Education for Patients and Providers

Many patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) and their providers are dissatisfied with patients' depth of useful knowledge about CKD and its treatment options. This increases stress and decreases satisfaction, while increasing health care costs. In this article, we will apply learning science - the marriage of psychology and the neuroscience of learning - to examine problems seen in current CKD education. The goal is to determine the characteristics of a CKD education curriculum that optimizes the speed of initial learning and long-term retention of CKD and treatment information. We will show that initial learning and long-term retention are optimized when microlearning is incorporated, spaced over time, and supplemented with periodic testing. We conclude by showing how spaced microlearning and testing could be incorporated into a CKD education curriculum.