Patient Teaching

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Teaching patients and families about Inflammatory Bowel Disease and living with this devastating illness is a crucial aspect of providing care. In the hospital in particular, health professionals need to provide endless information about medications, procedures, tests, treatments and special instructions.

The reality is, we also need to go beyond the hospital stay and prepare patients and families as best as possible to cope with the changes and challenges they may face in day to day living once they go home. While community resources are available, it is very important to be effective teachers and help facilitate learning before discharge.

In order to be effective teachers and ensure learning is occurring, it is important to have some knowledge about adult learning and consider adult learning principles in your approach to caring for these individuals. The following is an outline of the principles of adult learning and strategies that will help you in the teaching process.

Adult Learning Principles

Learning is:


Learning is best:

Other considerations to keep in mind:

Strategies for Teaching