How do you implement Patient teaching to a patient with impaired cognition

[Peachez8207]

Thanks to everyone that helped with my previous post. I am almost finished with my first care plan. Now I'm sitting here trying to come up with a way to do patient teaching. As stated in my previous post my patient has hypoxic encephalopathy d/t cardiac arrest possibly caused by polysubstance abuse. After further digging in his file I also learned that he had a stroke, has hyperetension, dementia and a host of other medical issues but I am focusing on these main ones.

TIA

Crystal

[Jules A, MSN]

Crystal,

What information/skills will you attempt to teach this pt? Having that outlined will help guide your teaching methods.

[Daytonite, BSN, RN]

Good question. The patient will have a "mental age". Then, refer to the child development info in what works best. Even babies have the capacity to learn. Cats can also be taught to do stuff. The trick is how you approach the teaching. Back to psychology books for that info. Now you know why it was a required class. Have I opened a few doors yet? The most common thing we used to teach cognitively impaired patients in the nursing homes was bladder training if there was any hint that they could use the BR when we sat them on the toilet. Many LTC facilities (and online sites) have bladder training steps already outlined. Something else is how to use the call bell. Seems silly, but if the patient is yelling out rather than using the bell-----why not try?