Where do
I begin?
Planning to teach begins with identifying a goal. What do you want patients
to do after the instruction that they couldn’t do before the instruction?
Regardless of whether your patients perform their dialysis manually or connect
to a machine, you need to decide your overall goals or outcomes in teaching
patients peritoneal dialysis. The training goals of our program is to have
patients:
1. Safely demonstrate procedures associated with peritoneal dialysis.
2. Recognize a contamination and take appropriate action.
How do I make broad goals
manageable?
Performing peritoneal dialysis involves a combination of knowledge and physical
skills. The above goals can be broken down into topics and subtopics (i.e.,
symptoms of peritonitis, making a sterile connection, etc.). Each topic represents
the information that is important for the patient to understand, or the skills
that a patient must demonstrate. When you identify topics that are involved
in meeting an overall goal, you are organizing the instruction in a way that
makes it easier for patients to remember. You also are identifying the skills
that patients must demonstrate in order to assure you that they are independent
in their dialysis care.
Here is a listing of lesson topics that the nurses in our clinic have developed for teaching their patients.
Overview to Peritoneal Dialysis
Aseptic Technique
Steps in the Exchange Procedures
Emergency Measures for Contamination
Exit Site Care
Complications
Troubleshooting
Ordering Supplies
Record Keeping
Clinic/Home Visits
Holiday Protocols
When you begin planning your own program, you will develop your own list of topics and subtopics which you will use to plan lessons.
How do
I organize the lessons?
Every lesson should connect to other lessons in a logical way, allowing patients
to learn, step by step, the information and skills needed in order to perform
their dialysis independently. Some lessons must be taught before others. For
example, you would not begin a lesson on troubleshooting with equipment if
your patients could not identify the parts of the equipment or demonstrate
how to use the equipment correctly. The information that you present to your
patients must be logical, otherwise they could become confused as to what
they are expected to do and have a harder time remembering what they already
learned.
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