The advantages of proper discharge education for patients in the emergency room:
- Efficient discharge education minimizes the rates of return of the patients to the emergency room due to the same reason.
Discharge education contains the instructions patients require to be able to provide their own care outside of the hospital. Appropriate discharge instructions help to cut readmissions of the patients. The guidance given through discharge education secures the patients’ better understanding of their health condition and adjustments they need to make to improve their quality of life.
- Efficient discharge education minimizes the risk of mistakes a patient may make during self-care and secures faster and easier recovery.
Improperly educated patients are under a risk of misinterpreting their doctor’s instructions, taking the medication wrongly or making errors during self-care procedures. Good discharge education informs the patients about the medication and procedures they were prescribed to treat their condition. As a result, properly informed patients are better at following the doctor’s instructions and have better chances for quick recovery.
- Discharge education may include appropriate training of a patient concerning the measures they need to take to secure their wellbeing.
If a discharged patient is prescribed to monitor their blood glucose or their blood pressure, but they do not know how to use a tonometer or glucometer, they are likely to have problems following the doctor’s instructions. This is why discharge education is to provide clear instructions and demonstrations as to the application of the necessary equipment.
Discharge education can be individualized to each particular patients and adjusted for their needs.
Due to the diversity of patients’ backgrounds, the education should be adjusted to a number of different languages to ensure proper comprehension of the information.