Teaching, training or educating patients? Influence of contexts and models of education and care on practice in patient education.

This paper presents the rationale, theoretical developments and operationalization of the role of contexts of care and education in practice, choice of methods and effects of patient education in chronic diseases. Starting from a review on the evolution of models of care, education and health education, and on the influence of characteristics of organization of care, it proposes an analysis model of contexts of care and education. A study carried out in 1993 in 10 Belgian and northern France hospitals, with 400 patients, is presented. Simultaneously, pre-post test evaluations of the effects of current patient education work on 40 compliance factors, and in-depth analyses of contexts of care and education were undertaken. The possible relationship between variety and number of effects of education and type of care and education is examined and discussed.