What factor best determines the clients ability to learn when educating the clients

The fourth edition of the Occupational Therapy Practice Framework: Domain and Process (hereinafter referred to as the OTPF–4), is an official document of the American Occupational Therapy Association (AOTA). Intended for occupational therapy practitioners and students, other health care professionals, educators, researchers, payers, policymakers, and consumers, the OTPF–4 presents a summary of interrelated constructs that describe occupational therapy practice.

Patient education allows patients to play a bigger role in their own care. It also aligns with patient- and family-centered care.

To be effective, patient education needs to be more than instructions and information. Teachers and health care providers need to be able to assess patient needs and communicate clearly.

The success of patient education depends largely on how well you assess your patient's:

  • Needs
  • Concerns
  • Readiness to learn
  • Preferences
  • Support
  • Barriers and limitations (such as physical and mental capacity, and low health literacy or numeracy)

Often, the first step is to find out what the patient already knows. Use these guidelines to do a thorough assessment before starting patient education:

  • Gather clues. Talk to the health care team members and observe the patient. Be careful not to make assumptions. Patient teaching based on incorrect assumptions may not be very effective and may take more time. Find out what the patient wants to know or take away from your meeting.
  • Get to know your patient. Introduce yourself and explain your role in your patient's care. Review their medical record and ask basic get-to-know-you questions.
  • Establish a rapport. Make eye contact when appropriate and help your patient feel comfortable with you. Pay attention to the patient's concerns. Sit down near the patient.
  • Gain trust. Show respect and treat each patient with compassion and without judgment.
  • Determine your patient's readiness to learn. Ask your patients about their outlooks, attitudes, and motivations.
  • Learn the patient's perspective. Talk to the patient about worries, fears, and possible misconceptions. The information you receive can help guide your patient teaching.
  • Ask the right questions. Ask if the patient has concerns, not just questions. Use open-ended questions that require the patient to reveal more details. Listen carefully. The patient's answers will help you learn the person's core beliefs. This will help you understand the patient's motivation and let you plan the best ways to teach.
  • Learn about the patient's skills. Find out what your patient already knows. You may want to use the teach-back method (also called the show-me method or closing the loop) to figure out what the patient may have learned from other providers. The teach-back method is a way to confirm that you have explained the information in a way that the patient they understand by asking them to act as if teaching it to you. Also, find out what skills the patient may still need to develop.
  • Involve others. Ask if the patient wants other people involved with the care process. It is possible that the person who volunteers to be involved in your patient's care may not be the person your patient prefers to be involved with. Learn about the support available to your patient.
  • Identify barriers and limitations. You may perceive barriers to education, and the patient may confirm them. Some factors, such as low health literacy or numeracy may be more subtle and harder to recognize.
  • Take time to establish rapport. Do a comprehensive assessment. It is worth it because your patient education efforts will be more effective.

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Bukstein DA. Patient adherence and effective communication. Ann Allergy Asthma Immunol. 2016;117(6):613-619. PMID: 27979018 pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27979018/.

Gilligan T, Coyle N, Frankel RM, et al. Patient-clinician communication: American Society Of Clinical Oncology consensus guideline. J Clin Oncol. 2017;35(31):3618-3632. PMID: 28892432 pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28892432/.

Updated by: David C. Dugdale, III, MD, Professor of Medicine, Division of General Medicine, Department of Medicine, University of Washington School of Medicine, Seattle, WA. Also reviewed by David Zieve, MD, MHA, Medical Director, Brenda Conaway, Editorial Director, and the A.D.A.M. Editorial team.


Use of Theory to Enhance Motivation and Learning

Health education often involves changing attitudes and values that are not easy to change by simply teaching facts. Therefore it is important for you to use various interventions based on theory when developing patient education plans. Because of the complexity of the patient education process, different theories and models are available to guide patient education. Using a theory that matches the patient’s needs in practice will provide more effective patient education. Social learning theory provides one of the most useful approaches to patient education because it explains the characteristics of the learner and guides the educator in developing effective teaching interventions that result in enhanced learning and improved motivation (Bandura, 2001; Stonecypher, 2009).

According to social learning theory, people continuously attempt to control events that affect their lives. This allows them to attain desired outcomes and avoid undesired outcomes, resulting in improved motivation. Self-efficacy, a concept included in social learning theory, refers to a person’s perceived ability to successfully complete a task. When people believe that they are able to execute a particular behavior, they are more likely to perform the behavior consistently and correctly (Bandura, 1997).

Self-efficacy beliefs come from four sources: enactive mastery experiences, vicarious experiences, verbal persuasion, and physiological and affective states (Bandura, 1997). Understanding the four sources of self-efficacy allows you to develop interventions to help patients adopt healthy behaviors. For example, a nurse who is wishing to teach a child recently diagnosed with asthma how to correctly use an inhaler expresses personal belief in the child’s ability to use the inhaler (verbal persuasion). Then the nurse demonstrates how to use the inhaler (vicarious experience). Once the demonstration is complete, the child uses the inhaler (enactive mastery experience). As the child’s wheezing and anxiety decrease after the correct use of the inhaler, he or she experiences positive feedback, further enhancing his or her confidence to use it (physiological and affective states). Interventions such as these enhance perceived self-efficacy, which in turn improves the achievement of desired outcomes.

Self-efficacy is a concept included in many health promotion theories because it often is a strong predictor of healthy behaviors and because many interventions improve self-efficacy, resulting in improved lifestyle choices (Bandura, 1997). Because of its use in theories and research studies, many evidence-based teaching interventions include a focus on self-efficacy. When nurses implement interventions to enhance self-efficacy, their patients frequently experience positive outcomes. For example, researchers associated interventions that include self-efficacy with effective management of heart failure (While and Kiek, 2009; Yehle and Plake, 2010), participation in physical activity (Ashford et al., 2010), self-management of arthritis (Nunez et al., 2009), and improved management of asthma in children (Coffman et al., 2009).

What is the key factor is providing impetus to a client for learning a new medication regimen?

Feedback: Motivation is probably the key factor in providing an impetus to the process of patient learning and teaching. Attitude, interest, and grasping power may also help the learning process, but without motivation the patient could be noncompliant to the treatment.

Which is the most important prerequisite to learning about a client's affective behavior?

A client must have motivation to learn.

When developing a teaching plan for a client the nurse needs to include all domains of learning which are the domains of learning?

The three domains of learning are cognitive, affective, and psychomotor.

What is the benefit of having a client learn in the psychomotor learning domain?

What is the benefit of having a client learn in the psychomotor learning domain? A. Clients are able to analyze information to create ways to meet their own health-care needs.