Using a teach‐back intervention significantly improves knowledge, perceptions, and satisfaction of patients with Nurses' discharge medication education

Abstract Background Evidence indicates that patients desire medication information, but clinicians often fail to teach this information in an understandable way. Teach‐Back promotes effective clinician‐patient communication and enhances medication adherence, satisfaction with education, and hospital experiences. Aims This study examined effects of a nurse‐led Teach‐Back intervention, Teaching Important Medication Effects (TIME), compared with usual care on patients' knowledge, experiences, and satisfaction with medication education before and after discharge. The aims were to examine patients' priority learning needs, group differences in new medication knowledge before and after discharge, and post‐discharge experience and satisfaction with medication instruction. Methods A longitudinal pretest/post‐test, 2‐group design was used with 107 randomly selected medical‐surgical patients from an academic hospital. After receiving medication instructions, patients were interviewed before and within 72 h after discharge. Bivariate analyses were used to assess group differences in demographic and outcome variables. Results Usual care ( n = 52) and TIME ( n = 55) groups' characteristics were equivalent. Knowing new medication names and side effects were top learning priorities. Medication side effect knowledge was better in TIME versus usual care groups at discharge (94.3% vs. 72.5%, p = .003) and follow‐up (93.9% vs.75.8%, p = .04). TIME positively influenced patients' medication education experiences; specifically, nurses always explained why a new medication was needed and its side effects. TIME was associated with patients being very satisfied with nurses' education versus usual care (97% vs. 46.9%, p < .001). Linking Evidence to Action TIME was significantly and positively associated with knowledge of new medication side effects over time and experiences and satisfaction with nurses' medication education. Teach‐Back was effective in educating patients about new medications. It is an essential approach for patient education, requiring clinicians to confirm patients' retention and understanding of new information with each encounter.