The physician and patient education: a review.

Education is an essential part of medical care and must be conducted properly for the patient to receive optimal benefit. Since physicians are responsible for a major portion of the health care delivered, there is a need to understand how patient education is used by these practitioners. Our current understanding of physician-patient education practices is reviewed in this paper. The frequency of patient education by physicians, the educational content and processes employed, and physician attitudes toward patient education are examined. This analysis shows that patient education is a salient issue among physicians. They report a high frequency of use of patient education with as many as 20% of visits containing a major educational intervention. The content of these interventions is weighed heavily toward instructions and information, with little assessment, monitoring or reinforcement noted. Physician attitudes toward patient education reflect an awareness of its importance and insecurity with actual educational interventions. A number of substantive issues remain to be addressed, including interventions to improve physician educational practice.