Effective patient education. A quasi-experiment comparing an individualized strategy with a routinized strategy.
A quasi-experiment was conducted on 127 hospitalized rheumatoid arthritis patients to determine the relative success of 3 patient teaching strategies--an individualized program, a routinized program, and a no-planned-instruction program--on patients' knowledge of their disease and treatment. Data analysis revealed that the individualized program produced a 100% greater learning gain than the routinized program in patients who had low pretest scores. The results suggest that maximum patient learning occurs when the teaching process accommodates important patient differences.
D001172:Arthritis, Rheumatoid / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006293:Health Promotion; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010353:Patient Education as Topic / Q000379:methods* / Q000458:organization & administration