Enhancing health promotion during rehabilitation through information-giving, partnership-building, and teach-back.

PURPOSE AND CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK: This clinical article explores how Street, Gordon, and Millay's framework of evidence-based communication strategies of information-giving and partnership-building can be used by rehabilitation nurses and other rehabilitation team members in their practice to help patients with health promotion. METHOD (INTERVENTION STRATEGIES): This clinical article gives practical suggestions for using the information-giving strategies of control, description, instructions, options, outlook, rationale, recommendations, and risks; and the partnership-building strategies of agreement, decision-making, questions, and requests to assist patients. CONCLUSION AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE: Combined with the teach-back method, these strategies have been shown to increase the likelihood that patients will lose weight, adopt a regular exercise program, and bring chronic illnesses such as hypertension and diabetes under control, which is also likely to increase patients' functional ability and independence. These strategies can be used by rehabilitation nurses and all members of the rehabilitation team in acute, sub-acute, out-patient, and in-home rehabilitation programs.