Building Competency in Diabetes Education THE ESSENTIALS

11-52 | CHAPTER 11

3. IMPLEMENTATION

The implementation stage of the program is where the ‘art’ of education is practiced. The best laid plans can be mislaid if the message is not delivered in an engaging way. It takes practice and developed skills to deliver the message effectively. As educators, we usually have our most comfortable way of “teaching”. However, we must reflect, “How effective is my teaching method? Can I do better?” We need to pilot our delivery, evaluate, revise and continue the cycle for optimal effect. Just as we are incorporating educational, behavioral and psychosocial concepts in our teaching and counselling, it is also advisable that we use mixed presentation methods in our interventions. Effective communication “One cannot not communicate.” Whether we are engaged in a heated discussion or we sit in silence, we are communicating. The true essence of the message is conveyed not by the words we say, but rather how we say them and the actions that accompany the words. We can define communication as a “complex composite of verbal and nonverbal behaviours integrated for the purpose of sharing information” (24). This process involves the volley of ideas being articulated and shared by the sender to the receiver and back to the sender in a continuous cycle. The sender originates a thought, encodes this into a message and then

transmits this message through a variety of ways to a receiver. The person receiving then decodes the message, interprets it and potentially acts or responds to the thought. At least, this is our goal when working with our patients. However, with the multitude of steps involved and the complexity of the

7%

38%

55%

Modes of Communication

messages that are sent back and forth, it is understandable why so many thoughts are misinterpreted, leading to a lack of understanding and miscommunication. Our concern in communicating with our patients is to implement strategies that will ensure a mutual understanding in our messaging, allowing for informed decision making (55). When conducting a session in-person, nonverbal communication accounts for 55% of the message being delivered. Our posture, spatial orientation, gestures and eye contact all