Managing ambulatory anticoagulation

Patient understanding of warfarin therapy: A review of education strategies

Significant research has been directed into defining best-practice anticoagulant management of thromboembolic events and optimal strategies for determining the safety and efficacy of therapy. Similarly, improved patient outcomes have been realised through the development of novel management strategies such as self-monitoring and self-management. Considerably, less energy has been directed towards developing and evaluating the best mechanisms for delivery of patient education. This is in spite of the fact that numerous confounders to stable therapy confront warfarinised patients on a daily basis. That patients requiring warfarin therapy should be educated with respect to that therapy has never been questioned. However, relatively little attention appears to have been paid to the development of robust models of patient education in the setting of oral anticoagulant therapy. This paper reviews the current literature with respect to warfarin education interventions before recommending strategies that may facilitate determination of the impact educating patients about warfarin therapy has upon clinical outcomes.