[VickyRN]

What barriers have you encountered in terms of successfully educating your clients as to healthy lifestyle changes, medications, prescribed therapies, etc? My greatest barrier is lack of time for patient teaching. Often, things are so rushed on the floor, that patient education is relegated to the back burner. I hate that - because educating our clients is so important and helps keep them from coming back into the hospital or worse!

Here is an excellent article I came across:

Issues Affecting Patient Education

Understanding how your patient learns will aid you in how to educate him. Before you cross him off as being non-compliant consider these findings. Over 49 million Americans are essentially illiterate when it come to health care issues.

Some of the issues that affect the success of the patient education process include the nurse's own education and background; the patient's preconceived ideas about his own health and healthcare issues, and the patient's ability and willingness to learn.

Nursing Patient Education