Abstract
Background and Objectives: Patient education is an effective nursing care to increase patient satisfaction with health care, reduce anxiety and the length of hospitalization and costs. Despite the importance of patient education, currently available evidence indicates the fact that the nurses do not show a positive and clear attitude towards patient education. The aim of this study was to identify and compare the barriers (related to patient, nurses and management) in patient education from the view of patients and nurses in the Shahid Madani Hospital.
Material and Methods: This is a descriptive, analytical study. The study population consisted of all nurses in medical, surgical, CCU, ICU wards and adult patients hospitalized in different wards .With the census sampling, questionnaires were handed to 193 nurses) and 184 patients. The data collection tool of both nurses and patients was a two-part questionnaire (first part Demographic Specifications and second part statements related to patient-related barriers, nurses-related barriers, manager -related barriers). To determine the validity and reliability of the study, content validity and split half method and Cronbach's alpha were used, respectively.
Results: The results showed that the most important patient-related barrier towards education from the patients viewpoint includes: I prefer to be taught by my doctor (%22.6) while most important patient-related barrier from nurses' view was lack of understanding of content because of illiteracy or low literacy (%20.8) .Also, Important nurses-related barrier from patients' view regarding education contains: Nurses do not have enough time for patient education (% 11.5) while this barrier from nurses' viewpoint were physical and mental fatigue of nurses due to high duties and shifts (% 33.9) . Important management-related barrier from patients' view contains: There are no rewards for nurses who educate patients (% 26.8) while this barrier from nurses' viewpoint was that managers do not provide enough nurses for wards (%48.2).
Conclusion: Patients' preference to receive education from their physicians, lack of content understanding because of patients' illiteracy or low literacy, communication difficulties and lack of patients' knowledge about their rights to receive education, lack of enough time for patient education, physical and mental fatigue of nurses due to high duties, lack of rewards for nurses who educate patients were important barriers for patient education. Due to the numerous benefits of patient education for patients, families, doctors and nurses and its impact on improving patient satisfaction, we need to remove barriers regarding patient education by appropriate measures.