My role of specialization is Family Nurse Practitioner. As a fertility nurse, I have seen a consistent need for alternative ways of patient teaching when it comes to self-medication administration. Although failure of treatment is not always due to improper self-medicating, it has created unneeded obstacles in care that have prevented success. If I am able to continue my fertility journey as a Nurse Practitioner, I would like to examine and evaluate patient teaching methods success rates and possibly establish patient education and teaching methods for expert care and desired outcomes.

To research this area of concern, I used the South University Online Library. Under programs, I selected “Nursing Program Guide” and then searched in the library search bar for journal articles, within the last 5 years, on patient education and teaching. I first searched for fertility medication teaching and unfortunately nothing resulted except a book on pharmacology. I also realized that it was important to look at patient teaching tools in general and establish which of these methods were most effective on patients based on previous research.

I was able to find three journal articles that gave me a good start to my patient education/teaching research. In an article in the Clinical Journal of Oncology Nursing, eHealth education was the focus. According to the Doorenbos et al (2020), eHealth includes mobile health applications, video and audio conferencing, text messaging, and web-based on demand education. The study provided results from case studies where eHealth methods had been used and gave patients and caregivers less anxiety and more understanding about their condition, care, and overall treatment (Doorenbos et al, 2020). In an earlier edition of the Clinical Journal of Oncology Nursing, I found an article that discussed patient teaching methods as related to self-injections. This study evaluated 50 breast cancer patients who were undergoing adjuvant or neoadjuvant treatment and the benefits of simulation during teaching as opposed to no simulation. The study found that there was no real difference whether simulation was used in teaching or not. Researchers found that it was the overall “teaching experience” that allowed for less anxiety and success (Fischer-Cartlidge et al, 2016). The last article I found was in Medsurg Nursing, and focused on the nurse as an educator. According to Flanders (2018), patient education should not be “cookie cutter” and should be adjusted based on specifics of the patient and caregiver. The nurse should consider things like education level, background, and access. According to Flanders (2018), nurses should use resources to constantly evolve as environment and information can change.

I feel confident that this is a good start in my research on patient teaching and education. It seems that it may be an obstacle to find more specific research on patient teaching on fertility medications and treatment plans, but I should be able to use patient teaching methods that have been applied in other health areas to build effective patient education for fertility patients.