Teaching Project

[Jayme]

I need help developing a teaching plan for patient withdrawing from substances/alcohol that are in a month long program. I was considering teaching coping mechanisms but in depth, they seemed turned off by the idea of just going over coping mechanisms. Any help or suggestion would be very much appreciated.

[JKL33]

Who seemed unexcited about your idea? Your instructors or the patients with whom you are working?

If you have regular access to the patient population, it would be really good to ask them what types of things they would like to learn about. Start a discussion and see what turns up in their comments. What are they worried about? What questions do they have?

Also research the kinds of risks or future roadblocks often faced by your population and aim your educational efforts at one of those.

[m4howie, ADN, BSN]

I am going to assume that you are trying to come up with things to teach patients that are withdrawing and are new to sobriety. I use to work at a drug/ETOH treatment facility. The patients were in intense classes everyday that dealt with coping. AA and NA are all about coping. The nursing staff was responsible for teaching an hour class each week. We did a lot of stuff about nutrition, sleep, and stress reduction. Apparently any time a physical/biological need isn't met in the body like hunger or even having to go to the toilet, an addict starts to crave the drug. Thus, the more these needs are met the less cravings an addict will have which helps them stay sober. This makes establishing day habits of eating, sleeping, and working out very important. There are a lot of research articles that support this. I hope this helps.