The therapeutic education of the patient is an integral part of the role of the nurse as part of health promotion and education.
Since 2009, this activity has been regulated by Law (article 84 of french Law no. 879-2009 of 21 July 2009 dealing with the hospital reform relating to patients, health and territories (known as the “HPST Law”), and included in the French Public Health Code containing the provisions defining Therapeutic Patient Education (TPE) and the conditions of its implementation).
There is an obligation to undergo 40 hours of training in order to be authorised to carry out actual work in therapeutic education for patients with chronic illnesses.
The TPE RN can work with the coordination RN in ERP to optimise the specific aspects of the patient’s education in terms of their illness.
By extension, ERP also involves preparing the patient as far as possible for their surgery by offering, where possible, prehabilitation and encouraging them to stop smoking and drinking alcohol.
It should be noted that educating is firstly having good communication skills
We are talking here about therapeutic communication (there was a time when this was called “the support relationship”) which acquires real meaning as part of ERP.
Our profession involves interpersonal skills.