Streamline CHF education to cover all points
Streamline CHF education to cover all points
Teaching sheets on mirror serve as reminders
Education for congestive heart failure (CHF) patients at Rapides Regional Medical Center in Alexandria, LA, got a whole lot easier once teaching packets were created to streamline the education. The packets provide teaching guidelines for staff and patients so important points don’t slip through the cracks. They also help to standardize CHF education.
"If the patient is placed on the cardiac floor, the nurses know what to teach," says Sharon Moore, BSN, patient education coordinator at Rapides Regional Medical Center. "But we wanted to make sure that if a CHF patient was placed on another floor in the hospital, he or she received the same information. We wanted the teaching to be the same from floor to floor,"
The packets contain a teaching outline for the nurse to follow that contains all the key teaching points, including a definition of CHF, signs and symptoms, and the information patients should understand before being discharged. There also is an education care path with daily teaching suggestions that both the nurse and patient can follow.
Reminders guide patients
The nurse attaches the daily key teaching points to the mirror as a reminder of what to cover. The sheets cover daily weights, medications, diet, activity and rest, and signs and symptoms of CHF. Because the sheet remains on the mirror all day, it gives the patient an opportunity to review the information, thus reinforcing the lesson. A small magnet in the packet with the hospital’s health line number on it provides an easy method of attachment. (See examples of the teaching guideline, education care path, and teaching point sheets in the CHF educational supplement in this issue.)
When the patient is discharged, he or she takes home the packet with all the information. The CHF packet also includes a self-care handbook titled Learning to Live with Heart Failure. (For information on this handbook, see sourcebox, below.)
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