Assignment Task: Respond to this discussion post:
1. In my experience as a hospital nurse, I care for patients with newly diagnosed heart failure. Many of the patients I care for are unable to read or have a hard time comprehending medications. At discharge, they are prescribed multiple new medications. For one of my male patients, I explained each drug's purpose and when to take them. I think that he pretended to understand my directions or he was unable to understand and recall what was said when he left the hospital and took his doses irregularly, leading to a readmission for fluid overload. To me, this shows how low health literacy, and difficulty understanding medical instructions, can directly worsen patient outcomes (Brega et al., 2020). This happens so many times and leads to many, many readmissions. I had a lady come in with an exacerbation of her CHF because she decided she was going to go shopping with her girlfriends for the weekend and just didn't take her Lasix. She said she didn't have time to pee when she was out with her girls. I explained to her that Lasix only lasts six hours with diuretic effects and that she could have planned accordingly. Things like this happen all of the time. Need Assignment Help?
2. Evidence-Based Strategy 1: Teach-Back Method
The teach-back technique asks patients to repeat in their own words what they've just been taught (Schillinger et al., 2021). Rather than asking "Do you understand?" the nurse says, "Show me how you will take your pills at home." This shows the nurse that they have true comprehension and lets the nurse correct misunderstandings immediately. A randomized trial found that the use of teach-back in heart failure patients reduced 30-day readmissions by 20%, demonstrating its power to improve adherence and outcomes (Schillinger et al., 2021).
Evidence-Based Strategy 2: Plain Language & Visual Aids
Using plain, everyday words instead of medical jargon and supplementing verbal instructions with simple diagrams or pictures makes information more accessible (Brega et al., 2020). For example, a pill chart showing morning, noon, and night icons can help patients know exactly when to take each medication and hopefully reduce mistakes. Research shows that combining plain language with visual aids increases understanding, especially in populations with limited reading skills (Khan & Williams, 2022). I find these two methods are very simple and truly do help our patients understand what they need for their health and relieves a lot of stress when they get home from a hospitalization.