Since 1998, the World Health Organization considers patient education as essential to the care of people with chronic disease. “The therapeutic patient education is a continuous process, integrated care and patient-centered. It includes activities organized awareness, information, learning and psychosocial counseling about the disease, the prescribed treatment, care, hospitalization and other care institutions concerned, and health behaviors and disease patient. It aims to help the patient and family to understand the patient’s illness. It aims to help the patient and family understand the disease and treatment, cooperate with caregivers live as healthily as possible and maintain or improve quality of life. Education should make the patient able to acquire and maintain resources to optimally manage her life with the disease “(World Health Organization, 1998). This process involves several stages integrated into the nursing process, “including a set of activities organized awareness, information, learning and psychological and social support on the disease, treatment, care, organization and processes of care, health behaviors and those related to the disease, and to help the patient (and family) understand the disease and treatment, participate in the care, support his health and encourage a return to normal activities “(Deccache and Lavendhomme 1989).
A general plan
The law of 9 August 2004 on public health policy, the Act of 21 July 2009 on the reform of the hospital and on patients, health and territories, orders associated with these laws (Decree of 2 August 2010 concerning the conditions for the authorization of the patient therapeutic education programs) and different levels (such as the National Plan 2007-2011 to improve the quality of life for people with chronic diseases) allowed only oppose care and prevention activities. Thereby improving self-management strategies of the disease and acquisition of health-promoting behaviors have become such important objectives as the increase in the lifetime (National Health Authority, 2007a).
Health behaviors of patients and their influences
Behavior and lifestyle of the patient are related to choices it poses consciously or unconsciously but also family contexts, social and doctor-patient interaction in which the patient falls (Health Authority, 2007b). Behavior care, education and relationship caregivers therefore also influence how the patient will behave in the future. The institutional context also plays a role in the behavior of the patient in hospital, it is not clear that the patient is expected to be “educated” on duty “learn his illness.”
What it means for Patients
Patient education has become essential to supporting people with chronic disease.
What it means for Health Professionals
A patient education program can be a basic form when the patient has stable symptoms (paper, DVD …) to more structured forms (action plan and monitoring visits planned) or more for custom cases the most complex (action plan, follow-up visits planned, case manager, telephone coaching).
What it means for Researchers
Patient education is based on research in clinical, public health, social sciences, economics and social sciences. The objective of the benefits of therapeutic education scientific data are limited in number and in some diseases (Health Authority, 2011). In general, the effectiveness of patient education to limit or delay incidents and complications related to illness, and improve clinical outcomes as the independence and quality of life remains unclear. This field calls for more research to better inform practice of health professionals, public health policy, patients and their families.
What it means for Policymakers
The development of therapeutic education is part of the Plan measures for improving the Quality of Life for People with Chronic Diseases 2007-2011, including through measures 5 and 6 It is also in the extension of the provisions of section 84 of the Act of 21 July 2009 on the reform of the hospital and on patients, health and territories, is dedicated to patient education (Art. L. 1161-1 to L . 1161-4 code of Public Health), which recognizes the therapeutic education provides for the implementation of programs of therapeutic education, authorized by the Regional Health Agencies and evaluated by the health Authority, and “actions accompanying “to provide assistance and support to patients and their families. The Act thus provides the opportunity to promote and develop in a sustainable way and closer to the living areas of the affected population, therapeutic education programs, which were hitherto largely implemented by hospitals and especially highly heterogeneous (program content, active list of patients, level of training professionals, cost of care …).
References
Deccache A, Lavendhomme E (1989). Information et éducation du patient, des fondements aux méthodes. Bruxelles : Editions De Boeck.
Haute Autorité de Santé (2007a). Structuration d’un programme d’éducation thérapeutique du patient dans le champ des maladies chroniques. Guide méthodologique. Paris. HAS Editions.
Haute Autorité de Santé (2007b). L’éducation thérapeutique dans la prise en charge des maladies chroniques. Paris. HAS Editions.
Haute Autorité de Santé (2011). Développement de la prescription de thérapeutiques non médicamenteuses validées. Paris : HAS Edition.
Ministère de la Santé et des Solidarités (2007). Plan pour l’amélioration de la qualité de vie des personnes atteintes de maladies chroniques (2007-2011). Paris : Ministère de la Santé et des Solidarités.
Organisation Mondiale de la Santé (1998). Therapeutic patient education: Continuing education programmes for health care providers in the field of prevention of chronic diseases. Copenhagen: WHO Editions.
To reference this Blog en Sante © article.
Ninot G (2014). Definition of disease education. Blog en Sante, L23.
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