INNOVATIVE APPROACH TO PATIENT EDUCATION

Limitations on staff nurses' teaching skills, more acute conditions, more complex self-care treatments, and shorter hospitalizations - all hampered our efforts to educate patients before the implementation of our patient training program, the RSTC. Occasionally, the patients' learning needs have delayed discharge. But such delays are good for both the patient and the hospital, as inadequate patient education before discharge is thought to be the reason for visits to physician offices and emergency departments after discharge, and both constitute higher utilization costs for out facility. Ultimately, the design of our RSTC program satisfies the educational needs of our patients for self-care within the context of fiscal efficiently. © 1994.