Barriers to Patient Education in Clinical Care; Viewpoints of Nurses

Patient education is considered as a standard in quality of nursing care. It is counted as an accrediting criterion for the organizations that provide health services. Meanwhile, there are evidences indicating the failure in this area. As a result, this study aimed to determine barriers to patient education in managerial, individual care-giving, as well as patients and caregivers dimensions from nurses’ viewpoints. This descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted on a census sample of nurses working in hospitals affiliated to Jahrom University of Medical Sciences in year 2013 (n=271). Data gathering tool was a researcher-made questionnaire about three categories of barriers to patient education, including “managerial”, “individual care-giving” and “patients and caregivers” obstacles. The validity and reliability of the questionnaire was confirmed. Data was analyzed by calculating frequency of responses to items, and weighted frequencies in each category. Most responders agreed to the barrier role of managerial (88.9%), individual care-giving (52%) and patients and caregivers (76.8%) items in patient education program. The most important barriers were lack of time due to workload (87.1%) regarding management area, lack of patient education planning for nurses in their daily work as a duty (64.2%) regarding individual care-giving area, and the unknown role of the nurses as a teacher to patients and the community (72.3%) regarding patients and caregivers. Management agents were the most important barriers of patient education. Therefore it is recommended that managers make actions such as taking a sufficient number of personnel, prioritize education by nurses in their daily tasks, and introduce patients with education to make them eager to admit this education and consequently encourage nurses.