Patient compliance refers to the patient’s willingness and ability to acknowledge medical advice from a professional. This can be expressed by taking medication prescriptions, attending checkups, or not ignoring potential risk factors (Cortellini et al., 2019). Furthermore, patient compliance is critical in all healthcare fields as it ensures the correct order of events to occur during treatment and remission. Hence, healthcare professionals should always advise patient compliance. For example, studies have shown that nursing intervention in the compliance of a hemodialysis-related procedure has led to beneficial results for the compliance and treatment itself (Wang et al., 2018).
As mentioned in the previous question, the healthcare professional plays a critical role in determining the boundaries of compliance. Besides recommendations and suggestions during checkup sessions, medical staff can offer any additional guidance the patient might require to commit to a regime fully. By ignoring the patient’s evident symptoms of noncompliance, for example, the analysis demonstrating unusual results, the medical worker contributes to possible complications of the case. If an optimal treatment plan is not established, it is the healthcare professional’s responsibility to develop one.
Compliance, unlike collaboration, is entirely dependent on the knowledge of one individual and the conformity to this knowledge of the other. Collaboration requires the contribution of both sides to benefit both as a whole. In the case of medical procedures, compliance should be the first step taken by a professional and the patient, as the optimal treatment plan is proposed and discussed. Once certain boundaries are explained, the dynamic may be modified to introduce collaborative elements. The patient would still comply with the prescribed methods while working with their medical worker to improve any treatment options.
Patient education in the past used to be centered more on strictly complying with the doctor’s recommendations (Wittink & Oosterhaven, 2018). Although a professional’s educated opinion still forms the foundation for the patient’s care plan, major attempts to provide medical education for the population could be noted today. In this way, articles are published to inform patients about the different medical information they might need. One new problem that arises from modern patient education is the high level of presented knowledge that may be too complex for an average reader to understand (Bange et al., 2019).
Patient education is essential for the improvement of many care and treatment procedures. However, this factor can only be successfully integrated into typical healthcare processes with the complete commitment of the professional. This commitment is expressed by open discussions with the patient regarding any risks or complications, their knowledge, and their opinion on the issue.
The three categories of learning include cognitive, affective, and behavioral (Van der Meer & Jin, 2019). Cognitive learning is based on memory and decision-making processes and can be used in patient education to stimulate collaborative problem-solving with the professional regulating medication intake. Affective learning is related to emotions and feelings and could be used to establish a trusting relationship with the healthcare worker to ensure clear communication. Finally, behavioral learning refers to the physical health skills that must be stimulated by the professional, for example, by suggesting physical exercises and an active lifestyle.
The first problem that may arise in patient education includes inconsistencies between online information and one provided by a professional. The professional preparing credible resources may solve this issue for the patient to review. The second problem may concern the patient’s unwillingness to learn about the issue; however, this would be solved by clearly establishing links between the new information and the treatment plan. In this way, communication is a critical factor to develop for both sides. Finally, another issue in patient education relates to the professional’s inability to educate their patient correctly. Medical institutions must provide masterclasses for healthcare workers to ensure staff competency in educating patients successfully.
Electronic health records have become popular methods of documenting patient information, including for educational purposes. Such records also include their general medical history, which may be beneficial in constructing session plans. Another method includes audio documentation with explicit consent from the patient. This method would be convenient for regular checkups and exploring the effective learning category.
References
Cortellini, S., Favril, C., De Nutte, M., Teughels, W., Quirynen, M. (2019). Patient compliance as a risk factor for the outcome of implant treatment. Periodontology, 81 (1). Web.
Bange, M., Huh, E., Novin, S. A., Hui, F. K., Yi, P. H. (2019). Readability of patient education materials from RadiologyInfo.org: Has there been progress over the past 5 years? American Journal of Roentgenology, 213 (4).
Van der Meer, T. G. L. A., Jin, Y. (2019). Seeking formula for misinformation treatment in public health crises: The effects of corrective information type and source. Health Communication, 35 (5). Web.
Wang, J., Yue, P., Huang, J., Xie, X., Ling, Y., Jia, L., Xiong, L., Sun, F. (2018). Nursing intervention on the compliance of hemodialysis patients with end-stage renal disease: A meta-analysis. Blood Purification, 45. 102-109. Web.
Wittink, H., Oosterhaven, J. (2018). Patient education and health literacy. Muscoloskeletal Science and Practice, 38. 120-127. Web.