Teaching home parenteral nutrition to patients with limited compliance skills.

Information gathered from psychological and behavioral assessment procedures was used to select a teaching approach for two home parenteral nutrition patients with limited abilities to learn--and therefore to comply with--their regimens. A "behavior shaping" procedure, involving the simplification of complex home parenteral nutrition tasks, resulted in significantly improved performance by both patients. Results suggest that these procedures may be applied to other home parenteral nutrition patients, including those without apparent skill deficits.