Patient education evaluation: beyond intuition

Intuitive ideas about problem areas gleaned from the literature as well as practice settings can provide nurses with a multitude of patient education evaluation issues. The nurse who is interested in evaluating patient education should review existing studies in the literature, sampling both process and outcome. Thoughtful planning and implementation of a patient education study can be personally satisfying. In addition, such an undertaking will contribute to the body of knowledge in patient education and provide valuable information to other patient educators. It is natural that nurses should pursue the rewards of patient education evaluation for themselves and their patients.