What should a nurse do as an educator when teaching a nursing student about patient self-care?

• A. The nurse helps clients gain the skills and knowledge needed for self-care.
• B. The nurse gives orders without explanation.
• C. The nurse avoids teaching the patient to reduce burden.
• D. The nurse only teaches about medication side effects.

Answer: (A)

The key idea is empowering patients to manage their own health through education and skill-building. As an educator, the nurse helps clients gain the knowledge and abilities they need to perform self-care safely and effectively, tailoring instruction to the patient’s learning needs, using demonstrations, return demonstrations, and teach-back to ensure understanding. This approach supports autonomy, improves adherence, and leads to better health outcomes because the patient can apply what they’ve learned to daily routines and recognize when to seek help.

Giving orders without explanation undermines learning and independence. Avoiding teaching to reduce burden ignores the patient’s right to learn and can compromise safety. Focusing only on medication side effects misses the broader self-care tasks that patients must manage, such as daily care activities, symptom monitoring, and lifestyle adjustments.