Part of nursing education focuses on the importance of educating patients. One of the first things I was taught at both jobs I've had since graduation immediately stress the importance of educating patients and documenting it as done. However, I don't feel I ever really fully grasped the importance of proper education until recently.
I had a patient who had started his chemotherapy regimen the day I had him. The day girls got the consent signed and gave him his Avastin, Oxaliplatin, a 5-FU push and then started a 46 hour hang on 5-FU. I took over care for this patient about 15 minutes into the 5-FU hang. We went through our normal tasks and I asked if I could get him anything. He said, "A fresh water would be nice." I got him this and he politely asked if there was ice, because it wasn't very cold. I told him that because of the Oxaliplatin he shouldn't have anything cold to drink. This was shocking news to him - his entire diet for now consists of yogurt, ice cream, and refrigerated Ensures.
We spent the rest of our interactions throughout the night talking about why he couldn't have cold stuff, I promised him room temperature Ensures, and he asked several appropriate questions. The one I didn't have an answer to was, "How long do I have to wait until I can have cold stuff again?" I didn't know; I asked my colleagues and no one knew. Thanks to Google and American Cancer Society, I found our answer.
I feel a lot of nurses go through the motions, share as little as possible, and only answer questions (which patients don't always know the right ones to ask), and don't properly educate. I'm sure I'm guilty of this as well, but I do, at least, always make sure my patients understand their medications - what they're for and the important side effects or things to avoid while on it. I wonder, how do you educate your patients? Do you think we are lacking in this area as nurses? (Why?)
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