Introduction to an Overview of Pediatric Patient Education
Today's physicians must deal with a public that is both informed and misinformed on children's health care. Adult school and college courses, magazine articles, film and television documentaries, and a host of books offer parents readily available information on pediatric health care, but some of these sources are inaccurate or biased, or both. Erroneous information is also disseminated by a variety of nonmedical practitioners and special-interest groups. They publicize their theories and methods by using authoritative-sounding statements and impressive, if meaningless, letters after their names. The profession of pediatrics is faced with the challenge of being the single most important source that parents can turn to for accurate information concerning their children's health. The challenge extends beyond that goal: pediatricians must also be willing to utilize educational methods and materials with which they may currently have little or no familiarity. Some of these techniques and tools will be presented in the following papers. As a first step in achieving these goals, pediatricians must recognize that patient education is a critical function of their practices. Next, they must become sufficiently motivated to act on this recognition of responsibility for patient education. Pediatricians must learn what patients need to know, what the best and most practical methods are to deliver that information, and what types of materials are available or need to be developed to assist in the educational process. Practices should be structured so as to enable sustained patient education while allowing for future innovations in either methods or materials. The goal of this conference is to strengthen individual patient education efforts and to convince pediatricians and the American Academy of Pediatrics that an organized, chapter-centered program should be established.