Mother-Baby Discharge Teaching

Purpose for the program: Hospital length of stay continues to decrease for new mother/baby couplets while the number of topics to learn continues to grow. Patients have not been involved in choosing what to learn during their hospital stay.

Proposed change: The purpose of this project is to increase patient involvement in education as well as increase satisfaction with discharge teaching.  Adult learning is intentional. Postpartum patients during the first four days present additional challenges in their readiness to learn.  Self care needs must be met before caring for an infant.  Literature has demonstrated that patients did not always want to learn what nurses thought was the highest priority.  Press Ganey surveys revealed dissatisfaction with discharge teaching  The Quality of Discharge Teaching Scale was used as a diagnostic tool to focus on specific areas for improvement. 

Implementation, outcomes and evaluation: The New Parent Education Plan was developed to ask patients to identify their personal learning needs during the hospital stay.  Nurses have been using the New Parent Education Plan to help the patient prepare to discharge.  Improvement has been noted in Press Ganey discharge teaching scores.  Patients have actively participated in identifying learning needs.  Nurses have identified a need to document patient education on the same form that the patient uses to identify learning needs.  The New Parent Education Plan and the education record have been incorporated into the appropriate care plans.  The Quality of Discharge Teaching Scale has shown improvement in scores since the beginning of the project.

Implications for nursing practice: Patients want to identify and choose what they will learn, when they will learn it, and which family members should be present.  Nurses need to ensure that patients have that opportunity.

Keywords: patient education, postpartum learning needs, patient collaboration