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The National Council on Patient Information and Education (1990) reports that about one third of patients take none of their prescribed medications. Thus, the effectiveness of medication education is a question worth exploring. "What approaches work well with patients, and what nurses can do to improve patient compliance," were two of the questions posed while designing a medication education program to meet the needs of an acute care psychiatric population in a new partial hospital program.
Drawing on past teaching experience helped simplify approaches to the project. Also, involving patients in the teaching-learning process and letting patients guide nurses in what patients need to know to make the best decisions for themselves enhanced compliance.
The following reflects this author's experience in developing a medication education program. It asserts that patients can teach nurses about their reasons for not taking medication and explores the kinds of information patients have found helpful in making healthcare decisions, including die choice to take or not to take medication.
Literature Review
Literature related to medication education of patients generally stressed the importance of patients learning the name, dose, and purpose of medications (Ravenborg, 1968; Smith, 1981; Whiteside, 1983). The National Council on Patient Information and Education (1990) lists several other factors related to adherence to medication regimens: length of treatment, number of medications prescribed, number of doses, patient lifestyle obstacles, patient forgetfulness, lack of provider time, and interpersonal barriers. Whiteside (1983) similarly described a correlation between the lack of understanding of the rationale for taking a medication and noncompliance.
Chatham (1981) took a more comprehensive approach to patient teaching and stated that "Health practices are a visible synthesis of one's healthrelated knowledge, skills, and attitudes. A patient's values, customs, and traditions will influence then- health practices."
However, despite Chatham's broader point of view, most nursing standards related to teaching medications continue to center on a patient's knowledge of name, dose, and purpose of medications. One should recognize that adoption of knowledge of name, dose, and purpose of medication as a standard for successful education does nothing to ensure that the patient is compliant with swallowing die pill. In some cases, such information is helpful to facilitate patient compliance. Yet nurses frequently observe patients who are compliant with medications but who...