Abstract
BACKGROUND: Tailoring therapeutic education consists of adapting the intervention to patients' needs with the expectation that this individualization will improve the results of the intervention. Communication is the basis for any individualization process. To our knowledge, there is no guide or structured advice to help healthcare providers (HCPs) tailor patient education interventions. OBJECTIVES: We used a data-driven qualitative analysis to (1) investigate the reasons why HCPs tailor their educational interventions and (2) identify how this tailoring is effectively conducted. The perspective aimed to better understand how to individualize therapeutic patient education and to disentangle the different elements to set up studies to investigate the mechanisms and effects of individualization. DESIGN: Individual semistructured interviews with 28 HCPs involved in patient education were conducted. The present study complied with the COREQ criteria. RESULTS: Why individualization is necessary: participants outlined that the person must be thought of as unique and that therapeutic education should be adapted to the patient's personality and cognitive abilities. The first step in the individualization process was formalized by an initial patient assessment. Several informal practices were identified: if needed, giving an individual time or involving a specific professional; eliciting individual objectives; reinforcing the relationship by avoiding asymmetrical posture; focusing on patients' concerns; leading sessions in pairs; and making the patient the actor of decisions. CONCLUSION: From our thematic data analysis, a model for tailoring patient education interventions based on the Haes and Bensing medical communication framework is proposed. The present work paves the way for evaluation, then generation of recommendations and finally implementation of training for individualization in educational interventions. SHORT INFORMATIVE: Tailoring in therapeutic education consists of an adaptation to patients' needs. Communication is the basis for any individualization process. There is no model of patient-centred communication in educational interventions. From semistructured interviews with HCPs, we propose a patient-centred communication model for tailoring patient education intervention.