Programmed instruction booklet for cardiac rehabilitation teaching.

Programmed instruction is an underused approach for educating hospitalized patients. This educational technique is based on the work of Skinner, who developed the linear programmed instruction technique. To test the effectiveness of this technique as a patient education tool, a programmed instruction booklet was developed for patients who were hospitalized after myocardial infarction. The booklet included basic information on cardiac anatomy and pathology, risk factors, diet, exercise, and medications. A quasi-experimental study design was implemented in which 59 hospitalized patients who had had a myocardial infarction underwent pretesting and posttesting. Patients were alternately assigned to a control group or an experimental group. The control group (n = 30) participated in the hospital's existing cardiac rehabilitation program, and the experimental group (n = 29) used the programmed instruction booklet. A one-way analysis of variance revealed a statistically significant improvement (p less than 0.05) in the posttest scores of the experimental group. The results of this study support the use of the programmed instruction method as one means of teaching cardiac rehabilitation information to hospitalized patients after myocardial infarction.