Patient Education Impact Synthesis
Patient education is an essential aspect of enhancing the patient outcome. End-stage renal disease is risky, and the study has proved that knowledge of the condition is effective in changing behaviour compared to no education. Education enables the patients to embrace approaches such as self-management support, shared decision making and engaging family and communities. This paper presents a synthesis essay of two articles that depict the importance of education in changing behaviour over no knowledge among end-stage renal disease patients of 30 years and above.
According to Narva, Norton & Boulware, (2016), the end-stage renal disease patients have multifaceted treatment procedures which require maintaining physical activity, monitoring blood pressure and glucose, and changing eating behaviour. To participate in these practices, the patients must have a proper understanding of their conditions through education. Patients who know their status can change their behaviour in the quest to improve their outcomes than those who do not (Shukla et al., 2019). Ideally, patients without education will lack the knowledge of how to handle their condition and hence fail to assume the necessary practices. In this regard, patients with knowledge have depicted improved outcomes than those with none. In other words, patients without education fail to diagnose comorbid conditions. Hence, their mortality rate is higher compared to those with education and are able to recognize it for necessary actions.
According to Shukla et al., (2019), 30 years and above old end, end-stage renal disease patients have more worries about their family, work, and how to achieve life goals. In this regard, they require information from clinicians to decide whether to have conservative or dialysis care based on whichever suits them best. In the process of providing education about self-management and adherence to medication, the patients get the chance to ask the clinicians questions and get them answered. According to a study by Shukla et al., (2019), the participants denoted that it felt good asking any questions they liked and having the clinicians pay attention to them. The clinicians use explicit language which enables the patients to understand lots of medical stuff; hence, curing most of their curiosity (Narva, Norton & Boulware, 2016). Contrary, lack of education makes the patient remain with unanswered questions which heightens their worries, and as a result, management of the disease becomes difficult.
Patient education provides a platform for the patients to establish a relationship with the clinicians. As both parties regularly interact in education programs, they become closer, which enables the patient to disclose detailed background concerning their diseases and other objective challenges they may face due to their conditions. As a result, the clinicians get an insight to develop alternative treatment approaches for better outcomes. Contrary, the patients who have no education about the end-stage renal disease, is an indication that they rarely interact with the clinicians and hence may lack the information about proper management of the disease through behaviour changes (Narva, Norton & Boulware, 2016). Consequently, such patients end up skipping essential practices necessary for their conditions and hence risk more complications.
Generally, patient education plays a vital role in changing the behaviour of end-stage renal disease patients. As a result, the outcomes tend to be better compared to those for the patients without education. Patient education creates awareness of the proper measures and behaviours to adapt to the patients to cope with the condition. In this regard, patients without such education report high mortality rate and difficulties in managing their health.
References
Narva, A. S., Norton, J. M., & Boulware, L. E. (2016). Educating patients about CKD: the path to self-management and patient-centered care. Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology, 11(4), 694-703.
Shukla, A. M., Hinkamp, C., Segal, E., Baslanti, T. O., Martinez, T., Thomas, M., … & Bozorgmehri, S. (2019). What do the US advanced kidney disease patients want? Comprehensive pre-ESRD Patient Education (CPE) and choice of dialysis modality. PloS one, 14(4), e0215091.