Teacher-as-actor: Investigating the barriers and facilitators of patient education among hospitalized patients in a cardiology clinical unit.

Patient education enables people with cardiovascular disease to develop self-management behaviors. This study aimed to explore facilitators and barriers to teaching patients in a clinical cardiology unit with a single site qualitative investigation involving 21 registered nurses attending four focus groups. This study identified barriers related to patient factors including individual characteristics and responses to education, comorbidities, acuity, and evolving diagnosis, while for nurses the barriers were lack of knowledge and expertise.