New Patient Discharge teaching sheets available in the adult care Emergency Departments
Tuesday March 4, 2014
More than 173,200 people visit the McGill University Health Centre (MUHC) adult sites Emergency Departments (ED) each year. Even so, clinicians have not had access to MUHC-developed, patient-friendly teaching sheets about various diagnoses to give to patients upon discharge. That is, until now.
Working with an interprofessional team of clinicians, the MUHC Patient Education Office (PEO) has developed 16 standardized teaching sheets for patients, based on the most common reasons for visits. Some of these include information for patients diagnosed with kidney stones, concussions, gastroenteritis, and abscesses, among others.
The patient discharge sheets are easy to read and understand, and include images, design, layout and a consistent approach to teaching. This approach to teaching material helps to ensure that MUHC patients leave with a clear understanding of what has happened, what to expect, home care management and, if necessary, when to return to the ED. All sheets have been evaluated by patients and are available in French and in English. Translation to more languages is planned.
You can find the ED teaching sheets on MedUrge, on the Health Education Collection Health Education Collection under ‘Resources’ at infotheque.muhc.ca and on the MUHC Patient Education website muhcpatienteducation.ca.
If you are interested in developing teaching material for your unit, or want to know more about the process, contact the PEO. The Office provides health literacy and design consultations, support for the development of new material or revisions of existing material. It also offers half-day workshops on patient education, all free of charge. For more information please contact Myrna Cabaluna at myrna.cabaluna@muhc.mcgill.ca.