Basic Learning Principles - Patient Education

Question 1

Depends on the learning environment and on the individual’s ability to learn, learning style, and motivation.

Answer 1

Learning

Question 2

Allow nurses to spontaneously take advantage of teaching opportunities as they occur in day-to-day contact with patients.

Answer 2

Teachable moments

Question 3

Depends on emotional, intellectual, and physical capabilities and on developmental stage.

Answer 3

Ability to learn

Question 4

If a person is incapacitated by anxiety, the nurse needs to find a way to alleviate the anxiety. This may mean teaching relaxation techniques before attempting to teach a task or a procedure.

Answer 4

Emotional capability

Question 5

Nurses must assess a patient’s knowledge and intellectual level before beginning a teaching plan. For example, measuring liquid or solid food portions requires the ability to perform mathematical calculations.

Answer 5

Intellectual capability

Question 6

Takes place in a variety of settings: the patient’s home, community centres, classrooms, and hospital rooms

Answer 6

Learning environment

Question 7

True or false: the ideal environment for learning is a well-lit, well-ventilated room with appropriate furniture and a comfortable temperature. A quiet setting with few distractions and interruptions can help a person to concentrate.

Answer 7

True

Question 8

The ability to learn often depends on physical health. To learn psychomotor skills, a patient must possess the necessary strength, coordination, and sensory acuity. Nurses should not overestimate a patient’s physical ability.

Answer 8

Physical capability

Question 9

True or false: any physical condition (e.g., pain, fatigue, hunger) that depletes energy also impairs the ability to learn. For example, a patient in a weakened state who has just spent hours undergoing diagnostic tests is likely to be too fatigued to learn.

Answer 9

True

Question 10

Nurses need to assess the patient’s ___ level by noting the patient’s willingness to communicate, the degree of activity initiated, and the patient’s responsiveness to questions. Teaching may be halted if the patient needs rest.

Answer 10

energy

Question 11

Age and stage of development affect the ability to learn. Without proper biological, motor, language, and personal-social development, many types of learning cannot take place.

Answer 11

Developmental stage

Question 12

Teaching methods based on patient’s developmental capacity (___):

• Maintain consistent routines (e.g., feeding, bathing)
• Hold firmly while smiling and speaking softly, to convey sense of trust
• Have them touch different textures (e.g., soft fabric, hard plastic)

Answer 12

infant

Question 13

Teaching methods based on patient’s developmental capacity (___):

• Use play to teach procedure or activity (e.g., handling examination equipment, applying bandage to doll)
• Offer picture books that describe a story of children in a hospital or clinic
• Use simple words such as “cut” instead of “laceration,” to promote understanding

Answer 13

toddler

Question 14

Teaching methods based on patient’s developmental capacity (___):

• Use role-playing, imitation, and play to make learning fun
• Encourage questions and offer explanations; use simple explanations and demonstrations.
• Encourage several children to learn together through pictures and short stories about how to perform hygiene

Answer 14

preschooler

Question 15

Teaching methods based on patient’s developmental capacity (___):

• Teach necessary psychomotor skills (complicated skills, such as learning to use a syringe, may take considerable practice)
• Offer opportunities to discuss health problems and answer questions

Answer 15

School-age child

Question 16

Teaching methods based on patient’s developmental capacity (___):

• Help learn about feelings and need for self-expression.
• Collaborate on teaching activities
• Let them make decisions about health and health promotion (safety, sex education, substance abuse)
• Use problem-solving to help make choices

Answer 16

Adolescent

Question 17

Teaching methods based on patient’s developmental capacity (___):

• Encourage participation in teaching plan by setting mutual goals
• Encourage independent learning
• Offer information so that they can understand effects of health problem

Answer 17

Young or middle-age adult

Question 18

Teaching methods based on patient’s developmental capacity (___):

• Teach when patient is alert and rested
• Involve adult in discussion or activity
• Focus on wellness and the person’s strength
• Use approaches that enhance sensorially impaired patients’ reception of stimuli
• Keep teaching sessions short

Answer 18

Older person

Question 19

Typically learn more successfully when they are encouraged to use past experiences to solve problems.

Answer 19

Adults

Question 20

When teaching adult patients, nurses need to collaborate with them on educational topics and goals. Needs or issues that are important to the adult should be addressed ___ in the teaching-learning process.

Answer 20

early

Question 21

Assessing what the adult patient currently knows, teaching what the patient wants to know, and setting mutual ___ will improve the outcomes of care and education.

Answer 21

goals

Question 22

The nurse uses a developmentally appropriate toy syringe to teach about immunization to ___-aged children.

Answer 22

school

Question 23

Learn best by watching.

Answer 23

Visual learners

Question 24

Audiovisual presentations and visual demonstrations often work best for this type of learner.

Answer 24

Visual

Question 25

Learn best when they are able to manipulate tools and find out how they work.

Answer 25

Kinesthetic learners

Question 26

True or false: when the patient is having difficulty with learning, you should consider a change to accommodate a different learning style.

Answer 26

True

Question 27

Person’s desire or willingness to learn and influences a person’s behaviour.

Answer 27

Motivation

Question 28

Reflect a need for connection, social approval, or self-esteem.

Answer 28

Social motives

Question 29

Driven by desire for achievement.

Answer 29

Task mastery motives

Question 30

As a desire to live independently, a high school student with diabetes begins to test blood glucose levels to determine insulin dosages before leaving home and establishes independence.

Answer 30

Task mastery motives

Question 31

Come from a desire to maintain and improve health. Patients motivated by the need to survive or overcome hardship are often more motivated than those who wish merely to improve their health. For example, a patient who has undergone a leg amputation may be extremely motivated to learn to use assistive devices, whereas a patient who is overweight but otherwise healthy may not be motivated to exercise.

Answer 31

Physical motives

Question 32

Helps educators understand learners and develop interventions that enhance motivation and learning.

Answer 32

Social learning theory

Question 33

Social learning theory concept involving a person’s perceived ability to successfully complete a task.

Answer 33

Self-efficacy

Question 34

Arise from four sources: verbal persuasion, vicarious experiences, enactive mastery experiences, and physiological and affective states.

Answer 34

Self-efficacy

Question 35

A nurse teaching a client with asthma to use an inhaler expressing positive reinforcement by encouraging him to use the inhaler himself is an example of this self-efficacy belief:

Answer 35

verbal persuasion.

Question 36

A nurse then demonstrating how to use an inhaler is an example of this self-efficacy belief:

Answer 36

vicarious experience.

Question 37

A client successfully using an inhaler by themselves is an example of this self-efficacy belief:

Answer 37

enactive mastery experience.

Question 38

A client is able to control their asthma by using the inhaler and a nurse gives him positive feedback, which further enhances their confidence to use the inhaler contributing to this self-efficacy belief:

Answer 38

physiological and affective states.

Question 39

Interventions such as these enhance perceived self-efficacy, which in turn improves the achievement of desired outcomes.

Answer 39

Self-efficacy beliefs

Question 40

Identifies a patient’s stage of change and focuses learning activities to match the patient’s stage, facilitating the learner’s motivation to change and his or her transition from one stage to the next.

Answer 40

Motivation and Transtheoretical Model of Change

Question 41

Five stages involved in behaviour change have been identified:

• Precon___: is unaware of need for change and has no intention of changing behaviour
• Con___: is aware of need for change and intends to change behaviour sometime in the future
• Prep___: alters behaviour in minor ways with the intention to make substantive changes in the immediate future
• Ac___: modifies behaviour and experiences in order to make sustainable change
• Main___: focuses on not reverting to previous behaviour and on solidifying new behaviours

Answer 41

Precon-templation

Con-templation

Prep-aration

Ac-tion

Main-tenance

Question 42

Standard of care that positions the patient as the focus of care delivery and as a partner in the delivery of care.

Answer 42

Patient-centred care

Question 43

To provide this approach to patient education, nurses must use both social learning theory and the nursing process.

Answer 43

Patient-Centred Approach to Patient Education

Question 44

Provides a nursing process framework incorporating social learning theory that facilitates a patient-centred approach.

Answer 44

RNAO’s L.E.A.R.N.S. Model

Question 45

RNAO

Answer 45

Registered Nurses’ Association of Ontario

Question 46

Consists of the following:

• Listening to patient needs.
• Establishing therapeutic partnership relationships.
• Adopting an intentional approach to every learning encounter.
• Reinforcing health literacy.
• Naming new knowledge via teach-back.
• Strengthening self-management via links to community resources.

Answer 46

L.E.A.R.N.S. Model