Evidence-Based Nursing Intervention Discussion: Teach-Back and Searching the Galen Library

What this assignment is really testing

This discussion introduces evidence-based practice (EBP): checking whether something you do every day is supported by current research. It builds three skills at once: recognizing interventions in your own practice, searching a library database efficiently, and reading and summarizing a scholarly article in your own words. Below is a complete guide with a worked example using a common intervention, the teach-back method.

Step 1: Choose a nursing intervention from daily practice

Pick something specific that you actually do, so your discussion is personal and easy to search. Ideas:

Step 2: Search the Galen library

Galen College of Nursing’s library is fully online. Its main search engine is EBSCO Discovery Service (EDS), reached through the Library & Resources link in the left-hand menu of any Canvas course. EDS searches Galen’s electronic resources at the same time, including CINAHL, MEDLINE, Academic Search Elite, ScienceDirect and Nursing@Ovid (Galen College of Nursing, n.d.). Academic librarians, tutorial videos and workshops are available if you need help.

1. Enter keywords for your intervention and outcome, joined with Boolean operators: "teach-back" AND (patient education OR discharge) AND nurs*. Quotation marks search an exact phrase; the asterisk finds nurse, nurses and nursing.
2. Apply limiters in the left panel: Peer Reviewed (Scholarly) Journals, Full Text, English, and a publication date within the last 7 years (for a 2026 course, 2020 to the present).
3. Scan titles and abstracts. Prefer systematic reviews, randomized trials or quality improvement studies that clearly evaluate your intervention.
4. Check that the article qualifies: confirm it is from a peer-reviewed journal (check the journal’s information or the “Academic Journal” label) and note the publication date.
5. Save the citation using the Cite tool, then check it against APA 7th edition rules, since automatic citations often contain errors.

Worked example: teach-back

The nursing intervention

In my daily practice, I use the teach-back method whenever I educate patients about new medications, wound care or discharge instructions. After explaining the information in plain language, I ask the patient to explain it back in their own words, for example: “To make sure I explained this clearly, can you tell me how you will take your new water pill at home?” If the patient’s explanation is incomplete, I re-teach and check again until they can explain it correctly. (Example; describe your own unit and practice.)

My process for using the Galen library

I accessed the library through the Library & Resources link in Canvas and used EBSCO Discovery Service. I entered the keywords “teach-back” AND “patient education”, which returned many results, so I added the limiters for peer-reviewed journals, full text and publication dates from 2020 onward. Adding “systematic review” narrowed the list to high-level evidence. The library was easy to use once I understood the limiters on the left side of the screen; the most challenging part was choosing the right keywords, because broad terms returned hundreds of articles. I chose a systematic review published in PLoS ONE, a peer-reviewed journal, in 2020.

Article summary in my own words

Article: Talevski, J., Wong Shee, A., Rasmussen, B., Kemp, G., & Beauchamp, A. (2020). Teach-back: A systematic review of implementation and impacts. PLoS ONE, 15(4), e0231350.

Talevski and colleagues (2020) reviewed 20 studies, including nine randomized controlled trials, that tested teach-back in hospitals, emergency departments, outpatient clinics, primary care, community health and a nursing home. They wanted to know how teach-back was put into practice and what effects it had. Almost all of the studies (19 of 20) reported positive results. Teach-back improved patients’ understanding and recall of health information, self-care behaviors such as diabetic foot care, and medication adherence. Two heart failure studies found fewer hospital readmissions; in one, 30-day readmissions fell from 18% to 13%. Some studies also reported better inhaler technique, quality of life and patient satisfaction. However, the authors found that most studies described poorly how teach-back was implemented, many used research staff rather than regular clinicians, and most measured learning only immediately after teaching. They concluded that teach-back works across many settings and patient groups, and that training staff and using reminders may help nurses use it consistently.

Did the article support my practice or teach me something new?

The article supports my current practice: teach-back improves patient understanding, self-care and adherence, and may reduce readmissions. I also learned something new. Teach-back works best when it is used consistently by all staff, which requires training, reminders and audits, and its benefits on long-term recall are less clear. To improve my practice, I will use teach-back for every key teaching point, not just at discharge; “chunk” information into small pieces and check understanding after each one; follow up with a phone call after discharge for high-risk patients; and suggest that our unit add a teach-back prompt to the discharge education documentation.

Another systematic review supports this rationale: Yen and Leasure (2019) found that teach-back was associated with improved patient satisfaction, self-management, quality of life and readmission rates, although improvements in knowledge retention were inconsistent and teach-back was usually combined with other education.

Sample discussion post

The nursing intervention I use daily is the teach-back method during patient education, especially when teaching about new medications and discharge instructions. I ask patients to explain the information in their own words and re-teach until they can do so correctly. To find evidence, I accessed the Galen library through Canvas and searched EBSCO Discovery Service using the keywords “teach-back” AND “patient education.” I limited results to peer-reviewed, full-text articles published since 2020 and added “systematic review” to find strong evidence. The library was easy to navigate once I used the limiters. I selected a systematic review by Talevski et al. (2020), which examined 20 studies of teach-back in hospitals, emergency departments, clinics and community settings. Nineteen of the 20 studies reported positive outcomes, including better understanding of health information, improved self-care and medication adherence, and fewer heart failure readmissions. The authors noted that implementation was poorly described and recommended staff training and reminders to support consistent use. This article supports my practice and taught me that teach-back is most effective when used consistently by the whole team. Yen and Leasure (2019) similarly found that teach-back improves patient satisfaction, self-management and readmission rates. I plan to use teach-back for every key teaching point and suggest adding a teach-back prompt to our discharge documentation.

Related reading: developing a capstone project from practicum experience and the application of data to problem-solving.

Conclusion

Connecting a routine nursing intervention to current research is the foundation of evidence-based practice. By using the Galen library’s EBSCO Discovery Service with focused keywords and limiters, nurses can quickly find peer-reviewed evidence. In this example, recent evidence confirms that teach-back improves patient understanding, self-care, adherence and readmission outcomes, and shows that consistent, team-wide use makes it even more effective.

References

Galen College of Nursing. (n.d.). Library and EBSCO Discovery Service [Support FAQ]. https://support.galencollege.edu/kb/faq.php?id=82

Talevski, J., Wong Shee, A., Rasmussen, B., Kemp, G., & Beauchamp, A. (2020). Teach-back: A systematic review of implementation and impacts. PLoS ONE, 15(4), e0231350. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0231350

Yen, P. H., & Leasure, A. R. (2019). Use and effectiveness of the teach-back method in patient education and health outcomes. Federal Practitioner, 36(6), 284–289.