[Teaching the patients with rheumatoid polyarthritis more about their disease]

A meeting in a hospital environment gathers, during 4 full days, five patients with rheumatoid polyarthritis, of similar evolutive stage, strictly selected after a complete work-up and determination of a medical and surgical treatment. The meeting around the rheumatologist and the nurse, of the physical therapist, ergotherapist, orthesist, chiropodist, psychologist, and the social worker, permits to explain to the patients, already informed about his/her disease, rules of hygiene, savings, training and rehabilitation which will be useful. The experience of 30 patients is presented and proposed as a desirable model, which is the only way to improve the patient's formation, since the physician does not have enough time to devote to this formation.