[Therapeutic education of patients receiving anticoagulants for thromboembolic venous disease: description of the Educ'AVK program]

Abstract

Educ'AVK is an education program designed for patients starting an oral anticoagulant treatment following a thromboembolic event (deep venous thrombosis or pulmonary embolism). Patients enrolled are judged capable of self-management of their drug treatment. The intervention, adapted to a short-term treatment, consists in an 3-step one-on-one teaching session conducted by a trained pharmacist. 1) Identification of the patient's needs--or educational diagnosis. 2) Definition of educational objectives adapted, first, to the patient's cognition: to be able to describe indications for therapy and potential risks factors for anticoagulant bleeding, to interpret INR lab tests and to solve a problematic treatment situation related second, to the patient's behaviour: to be able to anticipate the risk (how to enhance compliance, how to deal with a missed dose.), to take relevant decisions when dealing a therapeutic incident (bleeding, INR outside of the targeted range). 3) Choice of appropriate teaching contents and methods to reach the objectives. We used the "individual guidance" technique associated with original tools: a picture book to describe the pathology and the treatment; a booklet synthesizing all the information given by the educator during the consultation. This booklet presents 3 key-points: the information is specifically targeted to thromboembolic venous disease; the information integrates the risk-level of the patient (3 different booklets according to the patient's level of risk, of bleeding, of thromboemboly, no specific risk); there is a section where the patient writes down his/her INR results in a table specifically adapted to his/her risk level--bleeding, thromboemboly, no specific risk--and giving recommendations for the management of INR out of the targeted range.