Using a creative teaching process with adult patients

Because the patient or caregiver must manage healthcare needs after the nurse has left the home, patient education is an important component to home health nursing (Rice, 1996). Fortunately, patient teaching is ideal for home healthcare. To make the most of the home learning environment with adult patients, the nurse must assess, design, develop, implement, and evaluate an individualized patient teaching plan. Throughout the ADDIE process, the nurse manipulates and integrates the home environment to maximize the possibility that the patient will accept, remember, and apply the information presented. Taking into account how adults learn, the nurse provides relevant problems and situations for the patient to practice newly acquired knowledge and skills. The instruction presents learners with alternatives to their current ways of thinking, behaving, and living (Brookfield, 1986). Given the information and the tools needed to regain a sense of control and experience life safely, within their abilities of medical illness or injury, informed adult patients are likely to experience fewer complications and enhanced self-esteem. For pertinent, timely, and personal healthcare instruction, there is no place quite like home.