CCTV offers a visual method of providing information at the bedside
CCTV offers a visual method of providing information at the bedside
System shoppers must investigate options when installing CCTV
Closed-circuit television (CCTV) with channels dedicated to patient education programming can be a beneficial way to educate hospitalized patients. It provides an additional avenue for information and education conveniently available at the bedside that is especially good for visual learners, says Terry Chase, ND, RN, patient and family education program coordinator at Craig Hospital in Engelwood, CO. Also, it provides an opportunity for self-directed learning.
"We deal primarily with adults, and part of adult learning principles is that adults want to be self-directed and they want to take charge, and this is one of the ways they can," says Chase.
CCTV presents education in a format patients are used to. "Watching television is a normal way of life, and CCTV introduces education into their daily routine," says
Laura Gebers, BSN, RN, BC, PCS, programs health education coordinator at Deborah Heart and Lung Center in Browns Mills, NJ.
Because CCTV provides an opportunity to show rather than simply tell patients, it is a good tool for teaching patients about procedures they will undergo or explaining certain concepts. For example, when teaching about dietary changes via CCTV, patients can be shown the food and the portion sizes.
"Nursing staff don’t always have time to go through procedures with patients, and you can do it repetitively with the video on CCTV," says Dorothy Ruzicki, PhD, RN, director of education services/communications at Sacred Heart Medical Center in Spokane, WA.
It is easier to offer patients a variety of teaching methods when CCTV is available, says Berdelle Ingeman, RN, nursing/patient education coordinator at Rice Memorial Hospital in Willamar, MN.
"We try to give patients a combination of written and visual information if at all possible. We give them written materials they take home with them but show them videos while they are here," she explains.
With a CCTV system, nurses and other staff don’t have to haul a television with a VCR into a patient’s room to show a video, and the video won’t get lost, says
Ruzicki.
Not all CCTV systems alike
However, there are many systems from which to choose. Some provide videos on-demand so patients can watch a program when it is convenient for them, while others run programs according to a schedule. Currently, Sacred Heart Medical Center dedicates three channels to CCTV to run popular programs in several time slots so patients can view them. However, the medical center would like to go to a video on-demand system.
Systems can be totally programmed by the health care system, provide health education program packages as well as satellite TV services, or offer both program packages and self-programming.
For example, the video on-demand system installed at Rice Memorial Hospital this year offers the C.A.R.E. Channel, which shows photos of beautiful scenery accompanied by soft music to help patients relax. (For more information on the C.A.R.E. Channel, go to web site: www.healing health.com.)
At New York-Presbyterian Hospital in New York City, a packaged program is available on one closed-circuit channel to patients on the adult coronary unit, which has 20 beds. Because the videos were not handpicked, the system has several programs that do not pertain to heart disease, such as cancer treatments. However, there are a multitude of programs for coronary patients, and the videos are easy to listen to and watch, says Mary Moran, MPH, RN, a nurse clinician in the coronary care unit. The fact that patients can watch programs only at certain times makes the system difficult for nurses to use, she adds. An on-demand system would be more convenient.
To make sure the institution installed a system that was right for it, Ingeman researched the various systems available before presenting her findings to the patient education committee. To learn about CCTV, she posted messages on a patient education listserv and asked the members of the Midwest health educators group to which she belongs what they use.
The patient education committee selected five companies to investigate more closely, and Ingeman got information from them. Three of these companies were asked to do a presentation at the hospital, and administrators and staff involved in the medical center’s TV system and phone system were invited to attend.
"We did a lot of groundwork and talked to a lot of people through phone conversations and e-mails. They were very open about what they were using and discussing what was good about it and what was bad," says Ingeman.
It is important to do a lot of investigation up front to avoid pitfalls, she says. It was important for Ingeman to know what the service of a company was like after the system was installed. Rice Memorial Hospital went with a company that provided maintenance on the system and digitized the videos, which saves hospital staff, including the patient education coordinator, a lot of time.
Also, find out of the CCTV system generates reports, advises Ingeman. "We get a report on how many videos were shown a month and which videos were shown. It will help us long-term to determine what videos to take off," she explains.
Do your research up front, agrees Gebers. Contact organizations that have used the company you are considering. Find out how long it took to implement and if the organizations were able to install videos they had selected, produce their own videos for the system, or if they had to choose from a packaged menu.
Gebers says institutions that use General Electric for services such as medical imaging equipment can use their free patient education channel. She checked into this program but found that Deborah Heart and Lung Center was not eligible. (To learn more about this service, go to the web site at www. gehealthcare.com/seen/education/tv/faq.html.)
Part of the process of selecting a CCTV system is investigating the availability of videos that address the issues on which your health care system needs to educate patients, Chase says. Craig Hospital has about 80 beds for people with spinal cord injuries and brain injuries.
Sources For more information about selecting a CCTV system and videos, contact:
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Because the videos are used to prepare a patient for a procedure, they are shown prior to a one-on-one teaching session or to reinforce a lesson that already has been taught.
"I would recommend that facilities consider putting human interest, motivational, and fun information on the CCTV. Lifestyle videos help patients learn how to live with health problems, so search out good videos in that line," says Chase.
When reviewing videos, make sure patients will understand the words that are used, Gebers advises. Purchase videos that are short as well. "We find that viewers are bored with videos in excess of 20 minutes. If our Health Advisory Council is bored when reviewing the video, the patient will get bored, too. We make sure it is stimulating," she says.
The cost to put the video on a broadcast system also is a factor, says Ingeman. The clinical practice committee on each nursing unit recommended videos that the patient education committee previewed. However if the cost for broadcast rights was too high, the video was not put on the system. Some companies have no fee, some have a one-time fee, and others have a fee that must be paid every few years. Ingeman says one company asked for a $175 annual fee to show a $39 video on CCTV; therefore, it was not selected.Videos with a Spanish version were much more likely to be selected for CCTV at Rice Memorial then those that were in English only.
To help finance the purchase of videos and broadcast rights, the hospital foundation at Rice Memorial provided a $7,000 grant.
Deborah Heart and Lung Center will be able to produce videos it cannot find because it received a $100,000 grant from a foundation. Gebers says the facility will get $20,000 a year for five years.
She has a production company in New Jersey she works with that charges a reasonable rate.
She advises patient education managers who are looking for a company to produce videos to compare prices, for they can run as low as $4,000 and as high as $25,000. It might be wise to go with an up and coming production company that is looking for experience, as long as it has good references, says Gebers.
Once CCTV is available for patient education, it is important to educate staff on its use so they will incorporate it into their teaching.
Ingeman says policy on CCTV is included in the institution’s patient and family education policy. Staff members are supposed to highlight a couple of points patients are to look for in the video and ask a few questions to review its content after the patient has viewed it. Also, documentation is required.
"CCTV didn’t need a separate policy. It follows the approval method for patient education. The videos must offer current information on the topic that doesn’t conflict with our practice," says
Ingeman. For example, some pre-op videos that were reviewed had patients checking into the hospital the night before the operation, which does not happen at Rice Memorial.
ystem shoppers must investigate options when installing CCTV Closed-circuit television (CCTV) with channels dedicated to patient education programming can be a beneficial way to educate hospitalized patients. It provides an additional avenue for information and education conveniently available at the bedside that is especially good for visual learners, says Terry Chase, ND, RN, patient and family education program coordinator at Craig Hospital in Engelwood, CO. Also, it provides an opportunity for self-directed learning.Subscribe Now for Access
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