Improving Patients' Knowledge of Disease Through the Teach-back Method

Abstract

The Institute of Medicine proposed the importance of teach-back method in clinical settings in 2015. The statement describes the efforts to make patients and their families to correctly comprehend their condition, treatment processes and laboratory results. This study examines whether the implantation of teach-back method in our health care unit can improve comprehension and satisfaction among patients with various health literacy levels. Implementations included having the doctors to perform the teach-back method by asking patients to properly state in their own words about the diagnosis, laboratory reports and contents of health education. A self-administered survey is then filled out by the patients or their family members regarding satisfaction and knowledge-of-the-diagnosis. The nurses later rated the level of understanding of medical information of the patients or family members. The results revealed that the level of satisfaction had increased insignificantly from a score of 9.15 to 9.31 (P＞ 0.05); the ability to correctly recall the name of the diseases had significantly increased from 68% to 96% (P ＜ 0.05); the ability to describe the laboratory test results had increased from 74% to 92% (P ＜ 0.05); and the ability to clearly state the instructions of home self-care had increased from 74% to 84.8% (P ＜ 0.05). Teach-back is not only an effective communication method between health care professionals and patients, it also helps patients to accurately interpret their medical conditions.