Purpose:

Post-liver transplant education can be an overwhelming experience for transplant recipients. In order to provide succinct information for patients and families regarding post-transplant health, clinical nurse specialist (CNS) graduate students with the assistance of the liver transplant CNS at the Portland VA Medical Center (PVAMC), developed an electronic multidisciplinary post-transplant education documentation tool that addresses JCAHO standards.

Significance:

Patient teaching is a valuable aspect of patient care and is necessary for patients to make a smooth transition from the hospital setting.

Design/Background/Rationale:

A need was identified to have one central form where all disciplines document post-transplant education.

Methods/Description:

PVAMC uses a computerized charting system. A parent multidisciplinary note for liver transplant patients was developed with the capability to connect a child note to the original parent note.

Findings/Outcomes:

This system permits multiple disciplines to view each other's teaching progress and allows providers to communicate the special learning needs of the patient and caregiver. This document may also be used as a tool to assess a patient's readiness to learn and to evaluate the patient's learning progress.

Conclusions:

Completion of this tool promotes clear communication between multiple disciplines and is time efficient since a single location is available in which to reference patient teaching.