Although no set rules can be laid down as absolute standards for effective teaching, the following suggestions are recomended :
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| Patient Teaching |
1. Be trustworthy and consistent.
2. Have self-esteem and enthusiasm. Generate a sense that what you are teaching will benefit the learner.
3. Don`t discuss your personal problems with a patient.
4. Think through your teaching image. What do patients learn from your cleanliness (or lack of it), dress, posture, tone of voice, gestures, yawns, and facial expressions?
5. Know your teaching area. Organize and present your material so that patients feel you know what you are doing.
6. Utilize available teaching methods, resources, various emotional climates, and referral systems when appropriate.
7. Record your teaching experience and share these notes with other staff members (or teachers from other disciplines) who may instruct the patient.
8. Be realistic about teaching and learning. Accept good days and bad days. Sometimes you will be elated, sometimes depressed about results.
9. Respect the patient as more important than a procedures, a potential disease process, or a research project.
10. If you ask the patient to do something, explain why. Be sure that what you ask is realistic for his life.
11. Distinguish between lack of intelligence and misunderstanding caused by cultural, ethnic, or religious differences, and do not equate intellegence level with educational level.
12. Strive for learning from inner motivation through recognition of need, not from outward pressure.
13. Practice sensing the moment of learning. A sense of appropriate timing is essential in teaching.
14. If you write instructions, write legibly.
15. Plan for interruption.
16. Don`t overwhelm with technicalities.
17. Reinforce progress.
18. Accept errors in the learning process without harsh judgment but with correct information.
19. Don`t allow your racial bias to control your attitude about another`s ability to learn.
20. Don`t reinforce destructive thinking. When a patient says, "My mother died of this disease," don`t reply, "It`s a real killer. My two aunts died from it too.
(Source : Murray, RB and Zentner JP., Nursing Concepts for Health Promotion, Second Edtion, Prentice-Hall, Inc, Englewood Cliffs, N.J, 1979).
