What do you think about...

I am an agency R.N. in Utah for Med/Surg . Our staffing is alot like everyones

with 1:7 + on days and nights with 1 charge and few CNA's. We are scrambilng all day, you know the story. I try to stay in the soultion instead of the problem and one of the things that I've noticed is between the Meds, ADL's, Tests, and the unexpecteds that education ( which helps the paitent and families to feel more at ease) is sometimes not what it should be. Face it, it takes time to decode our language into something they can understand. What do you guys think about an RN who's only duty was to visit each pt. and sit down with them and their famlies and review dx, meds, tx, goals of therapy, prevention of possible complications? A laptop computer could even give a print out. Most hospitals have someone on staff that can't physically do the floor anymore (ie: back hurt, getting ready to retire) . It's just a thought.. I'd love both the positive and negitve ideas in this direction.

What a great idea! I've seen newly diagnosed diabetics shown a 20 minute video that was the extent of their teaching. Discharge teaching is usually less than 2 minutes of reading a pre-printed form. I think a big problem of non-compliance with medical regimens is that the patient just does not understand the intended therapeutic effects. As a nursing student, instructors stress over and over to TEACH the patient, but sadly enough, in the real world there isn't the time to do it well.

As a student I have the same problem. lecturers put a great deal of emphasis on teaching but out in clinical practice the difference is imence. I have found that as a student you need to read up on a patients discharge as they ask you for explanations to clarify what they have just been 'taught'