Discuss the patient's condition with her to assess what she already knows about it. Consider how she feels about her condition and prognosis before determining what her patient education needs are. For example, if a thyroid patient is afraid that her medicine will cause weight gain, medicine options and weight management should be discussed.
Write a personalized education goal for each patient. Too much information can overwhelm patients, while not enough can cause anxiety. Talk to the patient to determine what he is most concerned about and focus on that as much as possible.
Include a treatment plan for increased symptom severity and information on remission, if appropriate. Discuss the plan and be sure to schedule time for questions. Additionally, consider providing the patient with a plan to contact you in the event of future questions.
Assess patient knowledge through discussions at follow-up appointments. Adjust patient education goals at that time to maximize patient understanding and compliance and reduce anxiety as needed. For example, a patient may stop taking her asthma medicine because she isn't experiencing symptoms and doesn't like some of the side effects. Continued education about chronic disease control may be needed.
Assess student understanding of the medical condition in question. Consider diagnostic criteria, differential diagnosis, or the ability to rule out similar conditions, likely disease progressions and treatment protocols.
Use areas of weakness to determine appropriate goals. For example, if students understand the basic features of a medical condition, goals should focus on differential diagnosis. Set goals that compare and contrast similar conditions to develop differential diagnostic skills. Introduce treatment goals once differential diagnostic skills are well established.
Use treatment plan writing assignments to assess comprehension of targeted skills. Well-written treatment plans should demonstrate a thorough understanding of diagnostic criteria, disease progressions and treatment plans. For example, the student should be able to distinguish between viral and bacterial infections, estimate the severity of the illness and determine an appropriate treatment plan for a patient complaining of flu-like symptoms.