[How do nurses attend to their educational function and how do patients experience this? A field study in an...

Patient teaching is an essential component of patient care. Even if patient education has been given much attention the last year--both in research and textbooks for health professionals, some patients still complain about too little information and support when they are in the hospital. The purpose of this study was to find out how nurses fulfil their teaching responsibility in practice. Why, what and how do they teach patients? How do they document their teaching? What do patients think is the most important in relation to patient teaching? The study was performed as a field study in an orthopaedic ward. Participation, open observation and semistructured interviews were used as methods. Notes from observation, interviews and written nurse documentation are the data in the study. The results showed that the nurses were teaching the patients while they were doing some practical things at the same time. Nurses did not plan the teaching, and in hectic periods less information was given. Most of the teaching was information about facts. Patients were told little about what they actually would feel or sense (sensory information)--even if this is what several patients said they wanted to know about. The patients wanted to meet fewer people and they often felt that the nurses signalized business so they hesitated to ask them questions. A standard teaching program was not used. Most of the teaching was given orally, but written materials and a video were also used sometimes. The nurses did not document their teaching.