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Do you ever wonder if your patients really understand what you are teaching them? Do you see a lot of blank stares when trying to explain an asthma concept?
Asthma educators usually possess the knowledge to educate patients and families about asthma and how to effectively manage the chronic illness. However, the bigger question often remains of whether we possess the skills to teach in a way that "they get it."
We need to begin by thinking about common mistakes educators make when trying to teach. Although there are many things to consider when preparing to instruct an individual or group, I would like to submit these as my top three mistakes: using the same teaching techniques with every patient, trying to teach too much info during an appointment, and failing to involve participants.
Different learning styles
When educating others, we need to keep in mind that people learn in different ways, and it is important as effective asthma educators to try to involve all learning styles in our training.
People can be grouped as visual, auditory, and kinesthetic learners. Visual learners need you to show them what you mean and give them something to look at. They want information in writing for reference and as handouts to take with them. Auditory learners need to hear the instructor and others discuss ideas and situations. They will want printed information explained to them. Finally, kinesthetic learners need hands-on activities and will want opportunities to do what they learn. Guidance and coaching while doing the tasks will help them feel successful and competent.
Another way to differentiate learners is by grouping them as either Peacemaker, Truthkeeper, Solutionseeker, or Risktaker. Peacemakers learn best when they get to talk the info over with others to get opinions and reactions. Truthkeepers learn best when they first take some time to think about the info by themselves and organize it in some fashion. Solutionseekers learn best when they can do something practical with the info in order to really learn it. Finally, risktakers see the big picture of multiple possibilities and want to change the info in some way.
We learn in all four ways, but most of us have gotten comfortable with certain ways of taking in information, and it might be a bit of a stretch for us to learn in other ways. As educators, we have a tendency to teach the way we are most comfortable learning or to teach the way we were taught. However, we can "style stretch" to give information to others in ways that meet their needs.
Key messages
Although television is often seen as the enemy, it does teach us something important with regard to learning. If you pay attention to TV programming, you will see that segments are in 10 to 15 minute increments with breaks in between.
It is designed that way because our brains are programmed only to take in new information in short time spans before needing to rest. Therefore, it is important to keep our asthma messages simple and short. In the same manner, we need to evaluate what asthma education information is critical to our patient's successful management and which information is helpful but can wait until future visits. This is referred to as "need to know versus nice to know."
As educators, we are taught all sorts of important information about asthma, and we usually fall into the trap of trying to teach all of it to our patients at once. However, if we want to be effective at teaching, we must focus on the key messages that we can teach in very short periods of time.
Other useful tips when trying to move asthma information into long-term memory include:
Primary-recency: People tend to remember the first and last thing a person says. Therefore, you need to maximize your patient's learning power by beginning your teaching time with the most important concept you wish to teach and finishing your session with a review of the main ideas.
Written by the learner: Do you want to really impress your patients? Give them a pen and paper to take notes as you teach. This will let them know that you want them to be a part of the learning process, and it gives them the opportunity to write the concepts in a way they can remember. I would also encourage you to give handouts to re-emphasize the topics you discussed.
Emotional connection: Creating an emotional connection to the topics you teach will help the learner remember them. One way to do this is by including a statistic or story to emphasize the importance of the necessary behavior change.
Six times in six different ways: We tend to remember things we are taught or see at least six different times, and it helps to discuss the concept in six different ways to commit it to memory.
Get them involved
Finally, it is important to involve our patients in the teaching process. Active learners learn more, so use a variety of interactive lecture formats to liven up asthma education instruction. Make sure your environment is participant friendly and invites the learner to get involved.
If you are teaching an individual, sit at the same eye level without having any barriers between you. This creates an open, active participation atmosphere. If you are teaching a group, try to arrange activities that allow the participants to teach the new concepts to each other and to be involved throughout the learning process.
View a list of references.
Traci Hardin, MPH, AE-C, is owner of Breathe Well South Carolina in Columbia. She is also faculty with the Association of Asthma Educators.
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