Patient education in Finland

No mandated policies, practices, and procedures of patient education or patient health education exist in Finland but the efforts have been local in nature. Traditionally, primary and secondary health education as a part of maternal health care and during dental appointments have been known to exist. Hospital patient education efforts which may have resulted from past public health problems or legislative endeavors do exist in many hospital units but official hospital policies or strategies still do not. Patient education is often seen as health education. Voluntary agencies tend to emphasize practical issues rather than strategic planning in patient education. Finland complies with the WHO health strategies of 2015, and as a part of the Finnish strategies, it is considered important that large groups of people participate. A recent movement in health care to plan and implement shared decision-making activities (Seamless Macro Project, Path-project) is still short-term in nature. Practical actions are guided by professional skills, ethical practices, professional norms, and habits of the land, and of the three laws (public health law, occupational health law, patient status and rights law) guiding health education activities, the third one is specifically directed to patient education with an intent that when a treatment is not acceptable, another acceptable one must be found. Empowerment is a term seen in many contexts. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.