You Don't Need to Know How to Use a Computer to Benefit from These Teaching Tools
By: Robert Belske
When I started taking warfarin my nurse told me I had a lot to learn: what my INR means, food interactions, drug interactions, and who knows what else. The nurses gave me a stack of printed materials and told me to make a list of questions for my next visit the following week. I tried to read the materials, and I did read them all, but it was really confusing. Talking to my daughter about the therapy was stressful because she didn’t understand it either and wanted me to get more information. I was feeling overwhelmed. I went back the following week with a few questions but I still didn’t really understand my therapy. I was constantly worried that something I ate might completely upset my medication, or that every little nick would result in uncontrollable bleeding.
Two weeks later when I returned to the clinic one of the nurses told me that they had a new on-line training program I could take and asked me if I wanted to try it. I explained to her that I didn’t know how to use a computer but she told me not to worry, that the program worked just like a VCR with play and pause and rewind buttons. That was something I could do!
The teaching video was excellent. It clearly explained everything I needed to know about my warfarin therapy. I rewound through some confusing sections but by the time I finished I felt that I really understood why I was taking warfarin, how I should take it and the things that would effect my INR. I told the nurses that my only regret was that my daughter couldn’t see it as well. “No problem,” they replied. They printed out some simple instructions which I read to her over the phone that evening. She watched the video and was thrilled. Now we both understand my warfarin therapy and I feel like I can keep on top of it.
Patients of all ages can benefit from Emmi training videos; even those older patients that you might think intimidated by technology. As demonstrated by the chart patients aged 65-79 are actually the most engaged in the videos.