Patient education is vital in healthcare as it helps patients learn about their conditions, treatments, and how to manage their overall health. It also helps providers understand their patients’ needs and expectations. It can help improve communication between providers and patients, and it can help improve their outcomes. There are many different ways to provide this type of education. Providers can use these materials, such as pamphlets or handouts. They can also use technology, such as educational videos or computer-based programs. The education can also be delivered in person, through group classes, or one-on-one sessions. The delivery method, however, will vary depending on the needs (Subramani & Iyappan, 2018). Some individuals may need more education than others depending on their needs. For example, individuals with chronic conditions may need more education to manage them effectively. Providers should tailor the education to the individual patient’s needs making it an integral part of the healthcare system. This article provides a teaching experience report to educate patient providers on phosphorus management in hemodialysis patients.
The information presented to the providers was hemodialysis monitoring. It is essential to perform a phosphorus balance to assess the need for phosphorus binders. A 24-hour urine collection is the best method to assess phosphorus excretion. If urine collection is not possible, a 12-hour urine collection can be performed (Decaro et al., 2019). If serum phosphorus is high, the one will require more phosphorus binders. The goal of phosphorus management is to reduce serum phosphorus to 3.0 – 4.5 mg/dL and to keep the calcium/phosphorus product less than 60 (Decaro et al., 2019). Patients with serum phosphorus more significant than 5.5 mg/dL usually need phosphorus binders (Decaro et al., 2019). Decaro et al. (2019) further allude that patients with serum phosphorus more significant than 7.0 mg/dL or with a calcium/phosphorus product more significant than 65 need immediate intervention, starting with oral phosphate binders. Intravenous iron should be given for anemia.
Consequently, bodily weight monitoring, since failing kidneys are unable to eliminate sufficient amounts of body fluid, dialysis must handle this function. Between hemodialysis sessions, fluid retention might result in problems. Most patients will have their weight checked before and after dialysis and be instructed to check it daily at home. Relaying this information necessitated using a one-of-one teaching method with those in attendance.
Based on the learning style, the presentation was visualized using more pictures and diagrams. The presentation was also more hands-on, including more opportunities for those in attendance to practice the skills being taught. If any person had any learning barriers, the presentation could be adapted to make it more accessible (Krak et al., 2022). For example, if the one had a hearing impairment, the presentation could be made more visual or presented in a format that is easier to read. Additionally, if the individual is not ready to learn the material, the presentation could be adapted to make it more concrete. For example, suppose they are not ready to learn about the consequences of not having a daily dialysis schedule with the caregiver. In that case, the benefits of participating in such schedules might be highlighted in the presentation, such as improved health, decreased symptoms during and between dialyzes, and improved quality of life.
Patients were receptive to the teaching and felt that it was helpful. They appreciated learning more about phosphorus management and its relation to their health. Most attendees would ask questions about the topic during the presentation. In addition, the attendance of the patients was as anticipated from the beginning of the teaching session till its adjournment. They responded well to the initial invitation through the flyers and handouts before the learning session.
Patient satisfaction shows their participation in decision-making and their position as partners in enhancing the quality of healthcare services since healthcare companies prefer to focus on patient-centered care. According to Maroengsit et al. (2019), there is a strong link between satisfaction surveys and continuity of care, with pleased individuals more likely to follow medical advice and continue to see the same doctors. A crucial indicator of behavior related to communication and health is satisfaction. On the other hand, some of the literature disregards patients’ opinions as an entirely subjective assessment and an inaccurate assessment of the caliber of treatment. There are two methods, qualitative and quantitative, for assessing patient satisfaction. It includes a pre and post-test to see if there was an increase in knowledge after the intervention. The quantitative method offers precise ways to gauge an individual’s satisfaction. The most popular evaluation method for carrying out patient satisfaction research has been standardized questionnaires, either self-reported or administered by an interviewer. The evaluation also included the focus groups to see if they could understand and apply the information learned.
Overall, the teaching session was successful. However, there existed some barriers. First, there was a lack of understanding of the role of phosphorus in the body. Most of them did not know that phosphorus was essential for proper body functioning and that too much phosphorus could lead to serious health problems. Another barrier was the lack of knowledge about the different methods of phosphorus management. Most did not know that there were different ways to manage phosphorus levels in the body and that some methods were more effective than others. Finally, another barrier was the lack of motivation to learn about phosphorus management. Many patients did not see the need to learn about phosphorus management because they did not think it would directly affect their health.
References
Decaro, C., Montanari, G. B., Molinari, R., Gilberti, A., Bagnoli, D., Bianconi, M., & Bellanca, G. (2019). Machine learning approach for prediction of hematic parameters in hemodialysis patients. IEEE Journal of Translational Engineering in Health and Medicine, 7, 1-8. Web.
Krak, I., Barmak, O., & Manziuk, E. (2022). Using visual analytics to develop human and machine‐centric models: A review of approaches and proposed information technology. Computational Intelligence, 38(3), 921-946. Web.
Maroengsit, W., Piyakulpinyo, T., Phonyiam, K., Pongnumkul, S., Chaovalit, P., & Theeramunkong, T. (2019, March). A survey on evaluation methods for chatbots. In Proceedings of the 2019 7th International conference on information and education technology (pp. 111-119). Web.
Subramani, P. N., & Iyappan, V. (2018). Innovative methods of teaching and learning. Journal of applied and advanced research, 3(1), Web.