Supporting self-management in patients with chronic illness.
Support of patient self-management is a key component of effective chronic illness care and improved patient outcomes. Self-management support goes beyond traditional knowledge-based patient education to include processes that develop patient problem-solving skills, improve self-efficacy, and support application of knowledge in real-life situations that matter to patients. This approach also encompasses system-focused changes in the primary care environment. Family physicians can support patient self-management by structuring patient-physician interactions to identify problems from the patient perspective, making office environment changes that remove self-management barriers, and providing education individually and through available community self-management resources. The emerging evidence supports the implementation of practice strategies that are conducive to patient self-management and improved patient outcomes among chronically ill patients.
Coleman
Mary Thoesen
MT
Department of Family and Geriatric Medicine, University of Louisville School of Medicine, Louisville, Kentucky, USA. mary.coleman@louisville.edu
Newton
Karen S
KS
D002908:Chronic Disease / Q000628:therapy*; D003153:Community Health Services; D030141:Feedback, Psychological; D006801:Humans; D010353:Patient Education as Topic; D010358:Patient Participation; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations; D010821:Physicians, Family; D011216:Practice Management, Medical; D012648:Self Care