Development and Feasibility of a Nurse-led Person-centered Education Program

Background Psoriasis is a chronic inflammatory skin disease causing reduced quality of life. Psoriasis patients are often insufficiently informed about their disease with its treatment possibilities leading to non-adherence of treatment resulting in unsatisfactory patient outcomes. We therefore propose to develop an educational intervention for psoriasis patients; evaluate the feasibility of implementing it in a nurse-led psoriasis-outpatient clinic and compare the psoriasis percentage reduction, quality of life, health literacy and patient benefit, between patients receiving this educational intervention and those receiving standard care. Method/Design We first will develop an evidence-based educational intervention in collaboration with an expert panel and second will conduct a quasi experimental feasibility study in a psoriasis outpatient clinic in Western Switzerland. Twenty four eligible patients with psoriasis will receive a multidisciplinary education, for 6 weeks. Data will be analyzed using R conducting linear models allowing us to assess the impact of the intervention on psoriasis reduction and other secondary outcomes of interest, once controlled for reliable socio-economic cofounding factors. Discussion This trial will investigate the feasibility of the elaborated nurse-led education and the planed randomized controlled trial. In this study, we will elaborate and provide an informational brochure with information concerning psoriasis in addition to a nurse-led oral educational program in addition to medical standard care. We expect that this nurse-led person-centered intervention will contribute to enhanced education with a higher functioning, better self-efficacy and improved quality of life, better disease knowledge with a better adherence to the medication protocol. The results will further inform the final design of a subsequent large-scale randomized controlled trial, which will examine the effectiveness of this educational intervention. Additiona