A descriptive analysis of patient education courses in undergraduate and graduate health education programs

The problem of the study was to determine the status of patient education courses offered by undergraduate and graduate health education programs in the United States, and what was being taught in these courses.Two original data collection instruments were created. The first was a demographic tool used to collect data from colleges and universities (n = 120) during May/June 2004, and the second was a 59-item checklist used to conduct the content analysis of patient education course syllabi. It was found that only 9.2% of institutions that responded offered patient education courses, none of the syllabi included all 59 checklist items, there does not appear to be a statistically significant relationship between program accreditation/approval and the offering of a patient education course, and there does not appear to be a statistically significant relationship between programs that prepare students for the CHES examination and the offering of a patient education course.