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Effective Teaching Strategies and Methods of Delivery for Patient Education: A Systematic Review and Practice Guideline Recommendations

Journal of Cancer Education volume 26, pages 12–21 (2011)Cite this article

Abstract

The objective of this study was to determine effective teaching strategies and methods of delivery for patient education (PE). A systematic review was conducted and reviews with or without meta-analyses, which examined teaching strategies and methods of delivery for PE, were included. Teaching strategies identified are traditional lectures, discussions, simulated games, computer technology, written material, audiovisual sources, verbal recall, demonstration, and role playing. Methods of delivery focused on how to deliver the teaching strategies. Teaching strategies that increased knowledge, decreased anxiety, and increased satisfaction included computer technology, audio and videotapes, written materials, and demonstrations. Various teaching strategies used in combination were similarly successful. Moreover, structured-, culturally appropriate- and patient-specific teachings were found to be better than ad hoc teaching or generalized teaching. Findings provide guidance for establishing provincial standards for the delivery of PE. Recommendations concerning the efficacy of the teaching strategies and delivery methods are provided.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank all past and current members of Cancer Care Ontario’s Patient Education Program for their assistance in the development of this project.

The authors would like to thank the University Health Network (UHN) Patient Education Task Force, Patient Education Curriculum Committee for sharing their evidence-based best practice guideline for delivering patient education curriculum (Reference 7).

The PEBC is supported by the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care through Cancer Care Ontario. All works produced by the PEBC is editorially independent from its funding source.

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University Health Network, Toronto, ON, Canada

    Audrey Jusko Friedman

  2. Cancer Care Ontario, 610 University Avenue 5-319, Toronto, ON, M5G 2M9, Canada

    Audrey Jusko Friedman

  3. Program in Evidence-Based Care, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada

    Roxanne Cosby

  4. Department of Oncology, McMaster University, G Wing, 2nd Floor, 711 Concession Street, Hamilton, ON, L8V 1C3, Canada

    Roxanne Cosby

  5. Regional Cancer Program of the Hôpital régionale de Sudbury Regional Hospital, Sudbury, ON, Canada

    Susan Boyko

  6. Grand River Regional Cancer Centre, Kitchener, ON, Canada

    Jane Hatton-Bauer

  7. London Health Sciences Centre, London, ON, Canada

    Gale Turnbull

Authors
  1. Audrey Jusko Friedman
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  2. Roxanne Cosby
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  3. Susan Boyko
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  4. Jane Hatton-Bauer
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  5. Gale Turnbull
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Audrey Jusko Friedman.

Appendices

Appendix 1. MEDLINE, EMBASE, HealthSTAR, and CINAHL Search Strategy (all databases were searched at once)

  1. 1.

    Patient education.mp

  2. 2.

    Patient education/mt

  3. 3.

    Teaching/mt

  4. 4.

    Or/1–3

  5. 5.

    Clinical trials/or clinical trials, phase ii/or clinical trials, phase iii/or clinical trials, phase iv/or controlled clinical trials/or randomized controlled trials

  6. 6.

    Meta-analysis

  7. 7.

    “review literature”

  8. 8.

    Clinical trial.pt

  9. 9.

    Clinical trial, phase ii.pt

  10. 10.

    Clinical trial, phase iii.pt

  11. 11.

    Clinical trial, phase iv.pt

  12. 12.

    Meta-anaysis.pt

  13. 13.

    Randomized controlled trial.pt

  14. 14.

    Controlled clinical trial.pt

  15. 15.

    Guideline.pt

  16. 16.

    Randomized.mp

  17. 17.

    Or/5–16

  18. 18.

    4 and 17

  19. 19.

    Limit 18 to English

  20. 20.

    Limit 19 to human [limit not valid in: CINAHL; records were retained]

  21. 21.

    Remove duplicates from 20

Appendix 2

Table 3 Evaluation of included publications using AMSTAR
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Friedman, A.J., Cosby, R., Boyko, S. et al. Effective Teaching Strategies and Methods of Delivery for Patient Education: A Systematic Review and Practice Guideline Recommendations. J Canc Educ 26, 12–21 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13187-010-0183-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13187-010-0183-x

Keywords

  • Patient education
  • Teaching strategies
  • Systematic reviews
  • Meta-analyses
  • Patient-specific teaching