Objective: Patient empowerment can be achieved through the PBL model. The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the effectiveness and feasibility of patient empowerment through the PBL model in health continuing education of peritoneal dialysis (PD) patients.
Methods: From March 2017 to April 2017, a total of 94 participants were randomly assigned to the PBL group and the traditional group, with 47 patients in each group. Patients of the PBL group were divided into 5 study groups; and six PBL health education activities were held. The basic knowledge, self-management behavior, quality of life, anxiety, and depression were assessed among the traditional group and the PBL group. The average follow-up duration was 10.6± 1.5 months.
Results: Compared with patients in the traditional group, patients in the PBL group had higher scores of basic knowledges for PD (84.33± 3.55 vs 91.19± 3.07; P < 0.001), higher scores of self-management (61.19± 3.71 vs 71.47± 2.89; P < 0.001), better scores of quality of life (85.99± 14.33 vs 102.64± 9.43; P < 0.001), and better scores of satisfaction (90.78± 1.32 vs 98.21± 1.25; P < 0.001). Furthermore, the scores of anxieties (52.39± 4.55 vs 46.46± 4.63; P < 0.001) and the scores of depressions were lower (49.95± 6.76 vs 45.80± 8.77; P =0.01) in patients who participated in the PBL mode of education than in the traditional educational group.
Conclusion: The empowerment model of PBL health education can effectively improve the knowledge, skills and quality of life of PD patients.
Relevance to Clinical Practice: The findings identified in this study will help to improve the quality of nursing care and health education for PD patients.
Patient or Public Contribution: The study design involved patients on PD training. The knowledge and skills of PD and quality of life will improve after they participate the PBL health education activities.
Keywords: patient empowerment, PBL, peritoneal dialysis, patient education, quality of life, chronic kidney disease