NURS 8400-Older Adults Patient Education Issues Essay

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Write a 500‐750‐word essay on the influence patient education has in health care using the experiences of a patient. Interview a friend or family member about that person’s experiences with the health care system. You may develop your own list of questions.

Suggested interview questions:

Did a patient education representative give you instructions on how to care for yourself after your illness or operation?
Did a health care professional, pharmacist, nurse, doctor, or elder counselor advise you on your medication, diet, or exercise?
Who assisted you at home after your illness or operation?
Do you know of any assistance services, i.e., food, transportation, medication, that would help you stay in your home as you get older?
You are required to submit this assignment to LopesWrite. Refer to the LopesWrite Technical Support articles for assistance.

Patient education involves a process where health professionals give knowledge and educate both the caregivers and the patients on how they should adjust their health behaviors to

improve their health status and of those other people next to them. A caregiver who has

undergone patient education is likely to give proper and quality care to the patients. This paper

focuses on explaining how patient education influences how care is provided in a health care

system or facility. To achieve this, the essay involves an interview process of an older person

where personal experiences about the health care system are well given. The part of the interview

is to ask questions concerning the patient’s experience with their healthcare professional and the

type of education they received about their current or past health issues. Therefore, the

interviewee for this case, is Mr. Joseph Henning, an old man aged 71 years old. Joseph was

recently diagnosed with diabetes. He has had several health issues in the past which has had both

good and bad outcomes based on the healthcare professionals educating styles and applications

in relation to proper health care.

Questions asked:

1. Did the patient education representative, as well as the caregiver, give you

instructions that guide you on how to care for yourself after an operation or during

illness?

2. Did the health care professional, doctor, pharmacist, nurse, elder counselor, or

caregiver advise you on diet, exercise, or medication?

3. Who assisted you at your home or place of residence after your operation or illness?

4. Do you know of any assistance services, I.e., medication, food, and transportation that

would help you stay in your home as you get older?

In the interview, Joseph stated that during his care in the hospital before discharge, the

health professionals informed him about the life changes he would have to make with the new

diagnosis of diabetes. He stated that he saw a nutritionist help him with diet changes he must

make and enabled him to understand the importance of eating right. An endocrinologist

explained to him the type of diabetes he had and what this meant for his care. Joseph was

diagnosed with type 1 diabetes (juvenile or insulin-dependent diabetes), which meant that his

pancreas could not produce insulin ( Nielsen et al., 2016). Joseph had to learn how to check his

blood sugar and how to give the right amount of insulin based on his reading. Joseph stated

although he learned a lot about checking his blood sugar, he was still not comfortable with using

the glucometer or even understanding what the readings meant after he was discharged. Joseph

also stated that he was discharged with a different glucometer that he did not know how to use

and had to reach out to the family to figure things out. Joseph had to depend a lot on the family

for support of this new diagnosis. His wife was present during the education process, and the

type of foods he should eat and those that he should eat were emphasized.

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The importance of

physical exercises and how they could help in the management of diabetes were also taught by

health professionals. Joseph was confused about how he got the disease and could not understand

since the disease had never affected anyone in his family before. Older Adults Patient Education Issues Essay

THE INFLUENCE OF PATIENT EDUCATION ON HEALTHCARE AMONG THE ELDERLY 4

Joseph has several family members that are nurses, and they have offered information to help

him to understand this new diagnosis, and they further encouraged him to always keep in touch

with his doctor. He was also encouraged about proper food care and to report changes in urinary

status that may occur. Joseph states that although it was not the best education from the

beginning, the more questions he asked led to his better understanding of the disease process,

and he has been able to care for himself with the continuing knowledge he has received from the

healthcare professionals ( Grabeel, & Tester, 2018 ). Although Joseph states that his wife is

health-conscious because she struggles with hypertension, and cholesterol issues and she cooks

healthy meals daily, but the doctor’s office did inform me that meals on wheels deliver well-

balanced elderly meals to keep them from missing meals and that this and other programs are

offered through his local social services department. Also, Joseph stated that there are also

transportation services through access that can take him to appointments if he needed. Joseph

says that his insurance has a nurse that calls periodically to check in on him and comes out to

check his medication regimen to ensure that he knows how to take his medications as well as

paying for his medications.

In conclusion, the quality of healthcare patient education before or after discharge from

the hospital is important to keep the patient from returning to the hospital due to his lack of

understanding of how to take proper care for himself. Continued support is the overall best

practice for increasing the patient’s ability to remain healthy and alive.

THE INFLUENCE OF PATIENT EDUCATION ON HEALTHCARE AMONG THE ELDERLY 5

References

Grabeel, K. L., & Tester, E. (2018). Patient Education: A Change in Review. Journal of

Consumer Health on the Internet, 22(3), 229-237.

Katsarou, A., Gudbjörnsdottir, S., Rawshani, A., Dabelea, D., Bonifacio, E., Anderson, B. J., …

& Lernmark, Å. (2017). Type 1 diabetes mellitus. Nature reviews Disease primers, 3(1),