The Nurse’s Role as Health Educator: Strategies Beyond Learning Styles for Tailored Care Plans and Health Promotion

The nurse’s role and responsibility as health educator

Teaching is one of nursing’s oldest and most important responsibilities. Nurses spend more time with patients than any other health professional, and they are often the people patients turn to for explanations about their illness, medications and self-care. Patient education is part of nursing’s professional standards and ethical commitment to promoting health and supporting patients’ informed decision-making (American Nurses Association [ANA], 2021). Bastable (2019) describes the nurse as educator as someone who empowers patients and families to make informed decisions, manage their health and achieve the highest possible level of independence.

Key responsibilities

• Assessing learning needs: identifying what the patient and family need to know, what they already know and what barriers may affect learning.
• Planning and individualizing teaching: setting realistic, measurable learning goals with the patient.
• Delivering education: explaining diagnoses, medications, procedures, warning signs, self-management skills and prevention in clear language.
• Evaluating understanding: confirming learning through teach-back, return demonstration and behavior change.
• Documenting education: recording what was taught, to whom, how and the patient’s response.
• Health promotion and disease prevention: teaching individuals, groups and communities about healthy behaviors, screenings and immunizations.
• Advocacy and empowerment: supporting informed consent, shared decision-making and patients’ right to understand their care.
• Collaboration: coordinating education with physicians, pharmacists, dietitians and therapists so patients receive consistent messages.
• Educating colleagues: precepting students and new nurses and sharing evidence-based practice.

Effective teaching improves outcomes such as self-management, medication adherence and patient satisfaction, and can reduce readmissions. Inadequate teaching can lead to medication errors, complications and repeated hospital visits.

Why look beyond learning styles?

Many nursing students are taught to match teaching to a patient’s preferred “learning style” (visual, auditory, kinesthetic). However, a well-known review found little scientific evidence that matching instruction to learning styles improves learning outcomes (Pashler et al., 2008). Learners do have preferences, and using multiple formats is helpful, but effective patient education depends far more on factors such as health literacy, readiness to change, culture, self-efficacy and the teaching methods used. The strategies below offer a stronger, evidence-informed foundation.

Strategies beyond learning styles

1. Assess and address health literacy

Health literacy is the degree to which people can find, understand and use information and services to make health decisions (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services [HHS], n.d.). Because many adults struggle with complex health information, experts recommend health literacy universal precautions: assuming that all patients benefit from clear communication. Strategies include:

• Use plain language and avoid jargon (“high blood pressure” instead of “hypertension”).
• Focus on two or three key messages per session (“need to know” before “nice to know”).
• “Chunk” information into small sections and check understanding after each.
• Use pictures, models and demonstrations.
• Provide written materials at an appropriate reading level, with large print and white space.
• Use teach-back: ask patients to explain or show what they learned in their own words. A systematic review found positive outcomes in nearly all studies of teach-back, including better knowledge, self-care and adherence (Talevski et al., 2020).

2. Assess readiness to learn and to change

The Transtheoretical Model (Stages of Change) describes stages of precontemplation, contemplation, preparation, action and maintenance (Prochaska & DiClemente, 1983). Teaching should match the stage: raising awareness for someone not yet considering change, and offering concrete skills and plans for someone ready to act. Also consider physical and emotional readiness: patients in pain, anxious, fatigued or newly diagnosed may not be ready to absorb detailed information.

3. Use motivational interviewing

Motivational interviewing is a collaborative conversation style that strengthens a person’s own motivation and commitment to change (Miller & Rollnick, 2023). Nurses use open-ended questions, affirmations, reflective listening and summaries (OARS), explore the patient’s own reasons for change, and avoid lecturing or arguing.

4. Apply adult learning principles (andragogy)

Adults learn best when information is relevant to their lives, builds on their experience, is problem-centered and respects their autonomy (Bastable, 2019). Ask what the patient wants to learn, connect teaching to their goals (“so you can keep working” or “so you can play with your grandchildren”) and involve them in planning.

5. Build self-efficacy and set goals together

Self-efficacy, a person’s confidence in their ability to perform a behavior, is a central concept in Bandura’s social cognitive theory. Nurses build self-efficacy through small, achievable goals, return demonstration and practice, positive feedback, and role models or peer support. Collaborative SMART goals (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, time-bound) turn education into action.

6. Use health behavior theories to guide content

The Health Belief Model suggests that people act when they believe they are susceptible to a condition, that it is serious, that action has benefits and that barriers can be overcome, often prompted by a cue to action. Nurses can address each element, for example by discussing personal risk, benefits of screening and practical ways to overcome barriers.

7. Provide culturally and linguistically appropriate education

• Use professional interpreters and translated materials.
• Learn about the patient’s beliefs, values, diet, religious practices and traditional remedies.
• Adapt examples, foods and activities to the patient’s culture.
• Involve family members or community leaders when the patient wishes.
• Practice cultural humility rather than relying on stereotypes.

8. Consider developmental stage, cognition and sensory needs

• Children: play, stories and simple language; involve caregivers.
• Adolescents: respect privacy and autonomy; use technology and peer examples.
• Older adults: allow more time, ensure hearing aids and glasses are used, use large print and reduce background noise, and assess cognition.
• People with disabilities: adapt materials and methods to sensory, physical or cognitive needs.

9. Address social determinants of health

Education fails if patients cannot afford medications, healthy food or transportation. Assess social needs and connect patients to resources, such as medication assistance programs, food banks and transportation services, so teaching can be applied in daily life.

10. Involve family and support systems

Caregivers often manage medications, meals and appointments. Including them in teaching improves understanding and follow-through, with the patient’s permission.

11. Use technology and multiple formats

Videos, apps, patient portals, text reminders and telehealth follow-up can reinforce teaching. Combining formats (talking, showing, practicing and written take-home information) benefits most learners regardless of style preference.

12. Evaluate and reinforce learning

Evaluate learning with teach-back, return demonstration, follow-up calls and measurable outcomes, and reinforce key points at every opportunity. Document what was taught and the patient’s response.

Example: a tailored individual teaching plan

Fictional example for learning.

Example: a health promotion program

Sample discussion post

As health educators, nurses are responsible for assessing patients’ learning needs, planning and delivering individualized teaching, evaluating understanding and documenting education, while promoting health and empowering patients to make informed decisions (ANA, 2021; Bastable, 2019). Although learning styles are often discussed, research provides little evidence that matching teaching to a style improves learning (Pashler et al., 2008). More effective strategies include assessing health literacy and using plain language and teach-back, which improves knowledge, self-care and adherence (Talevski et al., 2020). Nurses should also assess readiness to change using the Transtheoretical Model (Prochaska & DiClemente, 1983) and use motivational interviewing to strengthen patients’ own motivation (Miller & Rollnick, 2023). Applying adult learning principles, building self-efficacy through small goals and return demonstration, providing culturally and linguistically appropriate education, involving family, addressing social determinants of health and using technology for reinforcement all help tailor care plans and health promotion programs. Together, these strategies make education more meaningful and more likely to change health behaviors.

Related reading: Teach-back evidence for nursing practice, Bandura, Maslow and the Stages of Change study guide, Orem’s Self-Care Deficit Nursing Theory and cultural humility.

See also: pros and cons of mandatory continuing nursing education.

Conclusion

The nurse’s role as health educator is central to safe, patient-centered care. Rather than relying on learning styles, nurse educators should build individualized plans and health promotion programs around health literacy, readiness to change, motivational interviewing, adult learning principles, self-efficacy, health behavior theories, culture, developmental needs, social determinants of health, family involvement and technology, and they should always evaluate learning with teach-back. These strategies help patients not only understand information but also use it to improve their health.

References

American Nurses Association. (2021). Nursing: Scope and standards of practice (4th ed.). American Nurses Association.

Bastable, S. B. (2019). Nurse as educator: Principles of teaching and learning for nursing practice (5th ed.). Jones & Bartlett Learning.

Miller, W. R., & Rollnick, S. (2023). Motivational interviewing: Helping people change and grow (4th ed.). Guilford Press.

Pashler, H., McDaniel, M., Rohrer, D., & Bjork, R. (2008). Learning styles: Concepts and evidence. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 9(3), 105–119. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1539-6053.2009.01038.x

Prochaska, J. O., & DiClemente, C. C. (1983). Stages and processes of self-change of smoking: Toward an integrative model of change. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 51(3), 390–395. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-006X.51.3.390

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

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (n.d.). Health literacy in Healthy People 2030. https://odphp.health.gov/healthypeople/priority-areas/health-literacy-healthy-people-2030