RUNNING HEAD: PATEINT TEACHING

Patient Teaching
Danielle Dowd
Ferris State University

Patient Teaching

2
Patient Teaching

My patient, TC, came into the hospital with facial cellulitis, but
had many other health conditions. My patient had type 2 diabetes
mellitus, COPD, eczema, and hypertension. The area of focus I chose
was the type 2 diabetes mellitus. TC admitted to not being a compliant
diabetic. TC only received insulin in the hospital, but did not take any
at home. This was an area of concern for the patient because I believe
there was a lack of education about the effects of uncontrolled type 2
Diabetes Mellitus.
Planning
To develop the teaching plan, I used the Transtheoretical Health
Promotion Model. With the help of this model, I found TC was in the
pre-contemplation stage. This is due to being under informed about
his condition. The client stated that he did not believe it would be a big
deal if he did not take his insulin. He also talked about not having a
glucometer at home or any information about dosing his insulin. There
were no educational level considerations that affected my planning.
My teaching material was information I obtained from the Spectrum
Health website. The teaching plan was to bring the information to the
client, with the most important areas highlighted. That way he could
focus on the main points. My nurse went over the portions that I
highlighted with me to make sure I did not miss anything.
Implementation

Patient Teaching

Before it was time to administer the insulin to my patient, I went

in and asked him if it would be acceptable if I talked to him about
managing type 2 Diabetes Mellitus. I included my nurse in the
planning phase because I wanted to get her thoughts before I tried to
talk to him. She already helped me with highlighting the articles. The
tools used was the highlighted articles from the Spectrum Health
website. See Appendix A. I let TC look over the articles for a couple
minutes than I went over the highlighted portions with him. To validate
learning, I watched his body language as I talked. If he looked away or
shook his head, I had to explain something more. I knew he was
learning when he shook his head or asked questions.
Evaluation
I evaluated TCs learning by asking him questions about type 2
diabetes to see if he could answer them. If he struggled answering a
question, we looked back at the articles and figured it out together.
This way it was a team effort. It would have been helpful if I did a
practice run with my nurse before I walked in. I practiced what I was
going to say in my head, but it is different with an actual patient. This
could have prevented the initial awkwardness, but we worked through
it. I would be able to evaluate this teaching in the future if TC started
taking his blood sugar levels, and insulin. This would be due to that he
learned enough about his condition to start taking care of it.
Conclusion

Patient Teaching

I learned that patient teaching is a process. It took the efforts of

my nurse as well to get my patient to understand the importance of
controlling his type 2 Diabetes Mellitus. Even then he may continue to
be noncompliant. I learned that if you do not know something, it is best
to admit to that and to look it up. I will use this experience as a
building stone for future patient teaching encounters.
Appendix A
Articles used for patient teaching
Spectrum Health. (n.d.). Retrieved April 21, 2015, from
http://healthinfo.spectrumhealth.org/conditions/diabetes/Understandin
g/8

5,P00335

This article gave general information about Diabetes.

Spectrum Health. (n.d.). Retrieved April 21, 2015, from

http://healthinfo.spectrumhealth.org/conditions/diabetes/Complications
/8

5,P00330

This article talked about the potential complications of having diabetes.

Spectrum Health. (n.d.). Retrieved April 21, 2015, from

Patient Teaching

http://healthinfo.spectrumhealth.org/conditions/diabetes/Managing/Mo
nit

oring/56,20566

This article was about measuring blood glucose and the importance of
it.

Spectrum Health. (n.d.). Retrieved April 21, 2015, from

http://healthinfo.spectrumhealth.org/conditions/diabetes/Managing/Me
dic

ation/56,DM154

This article was education about insulin and type 2 Diabetes.