THE PROVISION OF PATIENT AND FAMILY EDUCATION

Health-care professionals no longer have the option on whether or not to include patient health education into patient care. The U.S. Joint Commission on Accreditation of Health Care Organizations (JCAHO) requi res that patient and family education is provided in specifically iden tified areas. In order for health providing institutions to be approve d, these standards must be met. Health-care providers, however, should realize that patient health education (PHE) can be delivered in a var iety of ways and JCAHO does not set conditions as to which methods of delivery are applied. Several modes of PHE approaches are cited in thi s article, along with an example as to how to put them into practice.