Utilizing Teach-Back to Reinforce Patient Education A Step-by-Step Approach

Teach-back is a health literacy tool that can be used by orthopaedic nurses to assess their patients' understanding of what has been taught and immediately clarify and review concepts that were misunderstood. Research supports the use of teach-back to engage patients in the learning process, thereby reducing hospital readmissions, and improving self-management, safety, patient satisfaction, and patient outcomes. Nursing journals, however, lack articles that take nurses through the steps of implementing teach-back in their practice. This article describes the four stages of teach-back and takes you step by step through the process of integrating this health literacy tool in your patient education practices.