The transition from acute care to home: a review of issues in discharge teaching and a framework for better practice.

Patients are often sent home with complex discharge plans that can become overwhelming and difficult to follow. By contrast, implementing effective teaching at the time of discharge can lead to a decrease in the rate of hospital readmissions and mortality for patients post discharge (Koelling, Johnson, Cody, & Aaronson, 2005). Unfortunately, many of the discharge teaching practices and programs used in health care settings have been criticized …