No matter what the setting, physicians do not have the time to spend with patients and also do an adequate job of patient teaching. Their time is more involved in the assessment and evaluation process. Any instructions are usually brief and to the point. Nurses have to pick up where they leave off and make sure that patients and family members understand the treatment modalities and expected outcomes. To do this, your best option is to be present to hear exactly what the physician has told the patient. However, this is not usually possible. Therefore, you will need to rely on asking the patient what he has been told and hopefully the physician's notes can give you clues.

It is always an effective teaching option to ask what the patient knows or what he has understood to be said. You may get some great clues to his whole understanding of anatomy and physiology as well as disease and treatment modalities and options. A diagnosis of cancer often comes with big misconceptions. To some, it is a death sentence no matter what type and site. Many men also have the strange misconception that having a vasectomy will leave them impotent or at the very least cause some erectile dysfunction.

You need to know where the gaps are and what information the patient needs to fill them in. With family members, as long as you are authorized to discuss the care, you again need to understand their knowledge base and deficits, what they have learned from the doctor and the patient, and what else they need to know.

People are resourceful, and the Internet and media offer vast amounts of information. There are support groups for almost any disease known to man these days. Again, nurses have to help patients and family members sort out the information and to understand it. It is important to keep the physician in the loop as much as possible so that she is acutely aware of what the patient understands and especially if the patient has a tendency toward great misconceptions about his body, his health status, and his treatment.