Issued by: Kathy Quirk 414-229-3144 kquirk@uwm.edu Date: July 21, 2004

Program Helps Medical Professionals Become Better Teachers

Barb Jones (right) has a joint conference -- regarding the knee, in this case -- with a student.

MILWAUKEE – Dana Street found that becoming a nurse meant becoming a teacher, too.

“Every interaction we have with a patient is an opportunity to teach,” says the Navy nurse, who is stationed at Great Lakes Naval Center. Since educating patients is an important part of her current and future work, Street is working on a health education certificate from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee while earning her master’s degree as a certified nurse practitioner in UWM’s College of Nursing.

The 15-credit health education certificate, a joint program of UWM’s College of Nursing, College of Health Sciences and School of Education, was introduced in 2002. It is designed to teach nurses, occupational and physical therapists and other medical professionals the best ways to educate patients to become partners in their own health care.

Street is one class away from completing the health education certificate program. But she and others in the education certificate program already are using what they’re learning in class.

“I’m part of the interdisciplinary team that developed and continues to work on patient education materials,” says Barb Jones, a nurse who also has one more class to complete for the health education certificate. She is the nurse lead in Columbia-St. Mary’s Joint Camp program, a wellness-oriented program that works with people undergoing knee and hip replacement. As part of her work, she educates patients and their coaches before their surgeries and leads community seminars on joint pain.

With increasing numbers of procedures involving outpatient surgery, educating patients and their families about at-home care and follow-up takes on a new importance, says Street. In addition, she says, “we’re seeing more chronic conditions like diabetes and hypertension, where patient education is important in controlling and reversing symptoms.”

Putting complicated medical information into terms patients can understand and act on is a real skill, says Jones. “I could go right from class to work and use the concepts. I also enjoyed learning about adult education as an adult learner myself.” And, for her, there’s another fringe benefit. “I’ve increased my competence and confidence in using computers – they were hardly invented the last time I went to UWM.”

And, she adds, “I’m hooked, and plan to work on the application process for the graduate program in adult education.”