Question

Web-Based Patient Education Portals

Please consider the following questions:

• Discuss one benefit, according to the literature, of web-based patient education portals?
• Discuss one challenge of web-based patient education portals?
• How do you think nurses should deal with patients who present with web-based health information which may impact their care?

Answer 1

The benefits of web based patient education portals:

• Accessibility. They provide high levels of accessibility to healthcare information. Patients can be proactive and research about their illnesses and also halp form an opinion about the various treatment modalities available their inherent risks vs benefits, details of procedures that may be needed and the preparations that need to be done beforehand. This can also help alleviate anxiety.
• More time to take in the information. Often patients are highly anxious while discusiing medical conditions with healthcare practitioners. With web based patient education portals, they can take their own time to understand their condition in depth.
• Useful in states of public epidemic like the recent COVID-19 pandemic. In such situations, direct access of information from hospitals or healthcare workers is not possible. The web based eductaion portals of organizations like the CDC play a major role in such situations to provide information on preventive measures and precautions to be taken.

Challenges:

• Lacks the human-touch. Learning about medical conditions can be psychologically taxing and the presence of a doctor or nurse may make the situation better for some.
• Can be confusing. It is difficult to tailor content in such a way that there is adequate understanding for people from all walks of society. People with no relation to healthcare may find navigating the information tough and confusing.
• Reliabilty can become an issue with online content. The information provided can be vastly outdated or even inaccurate. Often peple who suffer from the illness contribute their understanding to common portals, which may not be accurate and may not take in account the wide variation of physiology and pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics across patients.

Nurses who deal with patients who provide web- based information can help in verifying the accuracy of the information, clear misunderstandings and guide the patient in the correct path so that they take informed decisions about their conditions