ANA Standard 5B Health Teaching and Promotion
Key Points
- Standard 5B defines RN responsibility to employ strategies that teach and promote health.
- Education must align with patient values, beliefs, literacy, readiness, and context.
- Core expectations include prevention guidance, adverse-effect education, and feedback-based adjustment.
- Health teaching is both a competency standard and a patient-safety function.
Pathophysiology
When teaching is not individualized or evaluated for effectiveness, patients may misunderstand plans, miss risk cues, and experience preventable deterioration. Standard 5B improves consistency of educational quality and supports safer self-management.
Classification
- Prevention guidance: Anticipatory education to reduce risk.
- Plan-of-care education: Intended and adverse effects of treatment.
- Individualization domain: Tailoring by culture, language, readiness, and socioeconomic context.
- Feedback loop: Using patient responses to modify teaching strategy.
Nursing Assessment
NCLEX Focus
Standard-based teaching requires assessing not just what to teach, but how and when each patient can learn.
- Assess patient and family priorities for health promotion topics.
- Assess literacy, language preference, and communication accommodations.
- Assess readiness, coping status, and ability to apply self-management steps.
- Assess developmental and cultural factors affecting uptake.
- Assess response to prior teaching and remaining gaps.
Nursing Interventions
- Deliver anticipatory guidance for prevention and risk reduction.
- Explain intended and adverse effects of the current care plan.
- Co-select self-management topics with patient/family input.
- Use technology and multimodal tools to reinforce understanding.
- Revise approach based on teach-back, questions, and outcomes.
Non-Individualized Teaching
Using the same education script for every patient can violate standard intent and reduce safety.
Pharmacology
Standard 5B medication teaching includes therapeutic purpose, expected response, adverse effects, and practical self-management actions.
Clinical Judgment Application
Clinical Scenario
A patient with limited English proficiency receives discharge instructions in complex medical language.
Recognize Cues: Standard 5B individualization requirements are unmet. Analyze Cues: Current education method creates high post-discharge risk. Prioritize Hypotheses: Language and literacy adaptation is immediately necessary. Generate Solutions: Use interpreter, plain language, and targeted teach-back. Take Action: Re-teach and verify understanding before discharge. Evaluate Outcomes: Patient demonstrates safe plan comprehension.
Related Concepts
- health-literacy-assessment-and-plain-language-education - Core method for standard-aligned communication.
- factors-affecting-adherence-and-compliance-in-patient-education - Barrier-aware adaptation of Standard 5B.
- learning-readiness-and-teachable-moments-in-patient-education - Readiness-sensitive timing in standard application.
Self-Check
- Which Standard 5B elements require explicit individualization?
- How should feedback change the education plan?
- Why is adverse-effect education central to health teaching standards?