TABLE 7-10

PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING-LEARNING
• Start where the learner is. • Proceed from simple to complex • Proceed from the
familiar to the unfamiliar • Use terminology that is appropriate for the learner. • Set both
short-term and long-term goals. • Apply knowledge to enhance learning, • Provide
positive reinforcement to enhance learning • Incorporate the "four Cs into teaching
(display confi
dence, act competent, communicate clearly, and demon
strate caring) • Use teaching materials that are suitable for the literacy
skills of the learner . Model the desired role behaviors • Provide opportunity to practice . Give
feedback on performance • Planning support available from others
three types of learning are interdependent. For example, sufficient knowledge (cognitive
learning) is foundational, but is insufficient alone, to the other two types of learning.
When our attitudes about food and nutrition change positively, then behavioral changes
often follow. Acquiring self-care skills can also lead to more positive attitudes about self-
care.
INFORMAL TEACHING: PROVISION OF INFORMATION. Where sharing of
information occurs in spontaneous encounters between nurse and family members, or
information is communicated to family members in an unstructured manner, informal
teaching is involved. Doherty and Campbell (1988) detail the skills that health care pro
sessionals need when providing ongoing medical information and advice to families:
Regularly and clearly communicating health find. ings and treatment
options to family members
TABLE 7-11
GOALS OF FAMILY HEALTH TEACHING • To provide information so that clients are able to make
informed decisions with regard to health and illness • To assist clients to participate effectively in their
care • To assist clients to adapt to the realities of an illness and its
treatment, trajectory, and prognosis • To assist clients to experience the satisfaction of seeing
their own efforts contribute toward improvement of health

• Attentively listening to family members' ques

tions and concerns • Informing the family of relevant Web sites or other sources of
information (books, videotapes
at the library) • Advising families how to handle the health and
rehabilitation needs of the patient (p. 132)

The breadth or depth of health information provided may vary depending on the family
members with whom one speaks. Accuracy of information is paramount, however, and
who provides what infor mation should be coordinated when teaching efforts are
interdisciplinary
Clinical practice and family research indicate that in health care
settings families desire more information than they currently obtain
from health professionals (Wright, Watson, & Bell, 1996). This need
for information is heightened when family members are hospitalized
and are critically ill (Wright & Leahey, 2000). Families want to be
informed regularly about their loved one's condition, treatments, and
progress One important informal teaching strategy suggested for the
hospital nurse is to make regular telephone contact with the family
(Bozett & Gibbons, 1983) This strategy has benefits for both the
nurse, who now controls the dissemination of information, and the
family, who feel that they do not have to be constantly at the hospital
now that they are receiving ongoing progress reports. Family
members will be less anxious because of the supportive information
that regular telephone calls provide.