Benefits of the Education for Patients Assignment

Running head: HEALTH EDUCATION
HEALTH EDUCATION
Name of the student:
Name of the university:
Author note:

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HEALTH EDUCATION
Total knee replacement or total knee arthroplasty is a surgical process which mainly
concerns around the replacement of the knee joints with artificial parts called the prostheses. In
normal cases, a knee usually functions as a hinge joint between the upper leg bone which is
called the femur and the lower leg bone called the tibia and fibula (Moulton, Evans, Starks &
Smith, 2017). In course of time, the surface where the two bones meet may get worn out over
time. This may be due to arthritis as well as other conditions which result in excessive swelling.
It also causes tremendous pain. The main reason for which patients usually opt for knee
replacements are to relive from pain and to restore the function performed by a proper knee
(White, Joshi, Murray-Weir, Alexiades & Ranawat, 2017). Another reason behind the surgery is
that when other treatments like weight loss, exercise or physical education, injections and
medication therapy fail to provide the patients with relief from the arthritis associated pain.
Recently, researchers are of the opinion that health education to such patients before surgery
helps to reduce many complications (Caplan & & Kader, 2014). The assignment will mainly
focus on the discussion of the benefits of the education and how the patients of the case study
may be benefitted from such education.
Pre-operative education:
Literature articles have defined preoperative education as a process of educational
intervention which is provided to the patient before surgery. The main motive of this form of
education is the improvement of the people’s knowledge as well as health behaviors and
different health outcomes (Ibrahim, Khan, & Nizam, 2013). Many researchers over the years
have found great benefits with the help of the different resources used in the preoperative studies
for these patients. These include written brochures, audiovisual interactions as well as
combination of these methods to educate the patients about the procedure. It has been found that

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HEALTH EDUCATION
educators found this method a very vital one. This is because it helps the patients to learn about
the procedure and also help them to clarify if they have any sort of questions. Often researchers
have seen that a patient’s willingness to proceed with the surgery is usually influenced by the
consideration about how completely the patients’ questions have been answered. Most of the
randomized trials conducted by researchers have provided results which have shown that the
education contributes to observed improvement and outcomes. Often through the different
articles, it has been seen that the content of the preoperative education often varies from patients
to patients as well as from medical professionals to others. However a typical form of education
mainly contains information which remains related to that of the different pre-surgical
procedures (Jones, 2017). They also contain information about the actual steps in surgical
procedures and also about different discharge disposition. Most essential part which also remains
included in the education procedure is the proper post-operative care. All these also give
knowledge to the patient about potential complications that may arise from surgical as well as
non – surgical processes. They also have information that provide relevant answers to the
different frequently asked questions of the patients as well as the post operative pain
management details. It also important contact numbers and emails that the patients can find of
help if he or she is in emergency (Biau, Porcher, Babinet, Rosencher, & Chevret, 2015).
There has been debate between researchers about the affectivity of the intervention of
postoperative education. Although many do not align with the concept, however a larger number
of researchers are positive about this intervention’s affectivity. The trials have shown positive
results in the patients health outcomes where the intervention had shown to decrease pre as well
as post operative anxiety. It also helped in reduction of the decreased post operative pain. The
patients were found to be able to cope with the situation in a much better way and also helped in

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HEALTH EDUCATION
the improvement of the length of stay in the hospitals. It also reduced the frequencies of decrease
in the number of readmissions and also helped in improvement of home damage
A very interesting finding has been observed from the work of many researchers. They
have stated that patients who undergo joint surgery often have high expectations from the
surgery (Alattas et al., 2016). In many cases, these expectations are even found to be much
higher than the expectation of the surgeons and the doctors. A very strong correlation has been
noted by many researchers between the patient satisfaction and the fulfillment of their
expectation in pain relief as well as in functional outcome. It has been shown by researchers that
there is evidence which shows 20% of all the total knee arthroplasty patients are not at all
satisfied with the outcome and this predictor was not at all meeting g the expectations (Livbjerg,
Froekjaer, & Simonsen, 2013). It is found after trials that preoperative education help in
improving the patients’ expectation and help them to understand how such pain relief they can
expect after the surgery. These help to overcome many issues that arise from patient’s higher
expectations. This also help the patients to understand what they can expect from the surgery as
the nurse gives a proper review about her after effects. With this intervention, nurses can prepare
the patient psychologically for the aims of rehabilitation by providing them with clear
explanations and expectations of the recovery procedures (Conditt, Gustke, Coon, Kreuzer, &
Branch, 2016). This providing information to the patients also helps the nurse to increase their
sense of successful surgery and also help them to develop the believed that they will be able to
successfully cope with the surgeries.
After the topic of expectations of patients, the next topic that is important to discuss is the
anxiety of the patients who go for his kind of surgery. A positive correlation has been found
between the increase of preoperative anxiety levels as well as pain after total knee replacements.