[Educational television]

This author attempted to understand the potential impact of using closed-circuit TV as an educational strategy to meet the learning needs of patients and their families. To do so, she gathered data from two hospitals that offered this avenue for health teaching. Of the 70 patients who participated in the research study, 32 were maternity patients and 38 surgical patients. The data were measured using the MAQSI criteria, which the Ordre des infirmières et infirmiers du Québec uses to measure quality of nursing care. The results revealed that although TV has many practical educational applications, TV in itself did not have a significant impact on learning. The hospital with the most significant learning had integrated closed-circuit TV education into the nursing care plan. The author also found that many factors could influence the impact that educational programming had on patients. Examples include the time selected for viewing or the length of stay in hospital. However, the key to the successful use of TV as an educational tool in the hospital setting seems to lie in the integration of TV learning with other conventional teaching methods.