An analysis on the health education demands of elder inpatients

Objective: To find out the health education demands among elder inpatients. Methods: A self-designed questionnaire was used to investigate 242 elder inpatients who were sixty years old and over and were in hospital between December 2004 and December 2005. The contents of the questionnaire included general information of the patient, complication, health care knowledge wanted to know, the formation of health education needed and the time arrangement of health education, etc. Results: There were 85.52% of patients who need disease related knowledge, 65.25% of patients who need self-care knowledge and 75.12% of patients who need everyday health care knowledge. Sixty-five point one five percent of patients need intercommunicational health education, 34.85% of patients need lecture health education, and 35.46% of patients welcome health education bulletin. Conclusion: Health education based on the demands of patients can improve the relationship between patient and nurse, strengthen the ability of self health care and trigger the nurses to study continuously.