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Dr. Centrella-Nigro is Assistant Professor, School of Theoretical and Applied Science, Ramapo College of New Jersey, Mahwah, and EBP/Research Specialist; and Ms. Alexander is Education Specialist, Department of Professional Practice, Holy Name Medical Center, Teaneck, New Jersey.
The authors have disclosed no potential conflicts of interest, financial or otherwise.
Teach back is an educational technique that involves patients or primary learners in the teaching process and asks patients to restate information as it has been taught to them ( Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, 2015 ). Nurses and other professionals engaged in health teaching can use teach back as a tool to evaluate the patient's understanding of the material that is taught. The National Quality Forum ( 2010 ) has recommended using teach-back methodology as one of its 34 endorsed methods of safe practice for health care professionals. Much of the information that is taught in health care settings is complicated, and it has been estimated that up to 80% of the material is not able to be immediately recalled after a teaching session. In addition, up to 50% of the retained information is incorrect ( Kessels, 2003 ).
Literature Review
Teach back has been shown to be an effective method of patient teaching. Patients with heart failure can recall discharge information better when the teach-back method is used ( White, Garbez, Carroll, Brinker & Howie-Esquivel, 2013 ). Patients with heart failure were taught discharge information using the teach-back method. Recall of information was evaluated during hospitalization and 7 days after discharge. Although teach back was recommended for patient education, the researchers were not able to demonstrate a significant decrease in 30-day readmission rates with these same patients with heart failure. However, Peter et al. ( 2015 ) demonstrated significant improvement in heart failure readmissions using the teach-back method in their discharge process. A 12% reduction in heart failure readmissions was demonstrated with the patients who received teach back as an educational strategy. In a recent study of patients with heart failure, using the teach-back method reduced 30-day heart failure readmission rates from 18% to 13% ( Haney & Shepherd, 2014 ).
In a systematic review of nine studies, Dantic ( 2014 ) found that the technique of teach back in the education of...