Problem:
In a variety of healthcare settings, it is not unusual for nurses and other health professionals to be faced with the challenge of caring for patients who demonstrate detrimental behaviors based on misconceptions, misinformation, and faulty learning. These incorrect beliefs and/or damaging behaviors are learned and can be difficult to change, even though they negatively affect the ability of patients to deal with their illness, injury, or recovery and to regain, maintain, or acquire a level of health and well-being. A team of healthcare professionals at Rockville Medical University has been selected to tackle the problem of this lack of accurate understanding of health information by a significant number of patients in the hospital as well as in community-based facilities under the auspices of this institution. An internal grant has been allocated by the university to establish a committee for the development of teaching techniques and instructional materials that professionals in different healthcare fields can use to try to replace patients' faulty learning with more accurate learning. As a nurse specialist in patient education, Anya Chou has been asked to serve as chair of the Patient Education for Behavioral Change committee to accomplish these goals. By consensus, the committee members have decided to explore theories, ideas, and strategies, grounded in psychological learning theories, principles of education, and the science of person-centered care, that can be employed to correct patients' misinformation and improve their health literacy skills. Answers to the following questions will be explored:
1. Why does faulty learning occur, and why is it so persistent? Identify and describe two learning theories that could be particularly useful in explaining why patients may hold on to false beliefs about healthcare interventions and treatments, and what each theory (or its subtheories) reveals about why these beliefs and behaviors are so difficult to change.