Patient education in work-related hand eczema. Importance and challenges in health care practice

Abstract

Patient education can help patients with work-related hand eczema to cope with their skin disease in an informed and responsible manner and to improve their personal skin protection behavior in everyday working and private life. Skin protection education in centers specialized in occupational dermatology is a pivotal component of outpatient and inpatient individual prevention programs for individuals with work-related skin diseases provided by the statutory accident insurance institutions in Germany. Patient education should be patient-oriented and promote learning, e.g., through interactive, activating discussions and design, references to everyday life, and methodically and didactically well-prepared media and materials in clear, understandable language. Challenges may arise in educational practice, e.g., due to subjective illness perceptions, participants with a lack of motivation, language barriers, functional illiteracy, or heterogeneous patient groups. In this article, different challenges are presented and educational and health psychological perspectives are discussed to meet these challenges in order to provide an optimal, patient-oriented individual prevention measure.