STEP 5 | Close the loop
Ask the person to repeat everything back in their own words
To finalise the process of teach-back, when all misunderstandings are clarified, ask the person to repeat the whole thing again in their own words. This helps people to remember everything in sequence. Ask them to tell you from the beginning again.
If they demonstrate understanding at this stage, provide positive feedback.
Successful completion of this step is referred to as closing the loop because if teach-back has been successful then it is closing off some of those gaps in communication we mentioned in the introduction.
Reference
Schillinger, D., Piette, J., Grumbach, K., Wang, F., Wilson, C., Daher, C., Keong-Grotz, K., Castro, C., Bindman, A.B. (2003).
Closing the loop. Archives of Internal Medicine, 163, 83-90.