Patient Education for Health Care Professionals:The Design of a Patient Education Manual for Older Adults

Patient education activities are carried out in a variety of ways, both formal and informal, and involve the entire spectrum of health care professionals. In some professional training programs the role of patient educator is clearly emphasized, while in other fields the clinician does not identify with this role. Many health care professionals are well prepared for the technical aspects of their work but are inadequately prepared to provide patient education. In addition, many health care workers lack specific knowledge related to the needs of older adults. The purpose of this paper is to disclose some of the barriers to learning faced by older adults and to present teaching methods that address those barriers as well as the learning needs of older adults. A patient education manual for health care professionals working with older adults that addresses these principles is presented as an appendix to this paper.