Target your teaching: How patients learn best

Every appointment is an opportunity for teaching and learning, both for the patient and the doctor. However, given today’s real-life constraints, is expecting doctors to teach patients asking for the moon?

“Your first question should not be, ‘What do I want my patient to know?’ but rather, ‘What do I want my patient to be able to do?’ ”
-Aniruddha Malpani, MD, medical director of Malpani Infertility Clinic in Mumbai, India

The trick is to think of your patients as adult learners, and there are 4 principles of adult learning that you need to remember:...