According to Healthy People 2012 there are more than 800,000 new cases of diabetes each year, with the numbers increasing. With this in mind, Healthy People 2012 identified diabetes as the fifth focus area. To achieve their goal of improving the quality of life for people with diabetes, they identified diabetes education as their number one goal. Furthermore, in order to reduce the number of diabetes complications, Healthy People 2012 identified foot ulcers as the ninth objective. Through patient education, Healthy People 2012 hopes to reduce the number of foot ulcers in people with diabetes, as diabetes is the number one cause of non-traumatic amputations in the United States. To successfully reduce the number of amputations and diabetic foot ulcers, patient education is essential. Patient teaching, like the nursing process, begins with assessment to identify the patient's learning needs (Wilkinson & Van Leuven, 2007). For example, when implementing a teaching and learning tool for a patient, the nurse must first assess the patient to identify necessary teaching areas. In this example we will consider JL, a seventy-two year old male with a history that includes the following: hypertension, heart murmur, pacemaker, CAD, cardiomyopathy, hyperkalemia, hypercholesterolemia, cigarette smoking, and diabetes. In addition to the patient's past medical history, assessment data are needed to help identify teaching needs. In this example, JL was found walking in his apartment without shoes or socks and was seen leaving the apartment complex with shoes and no socks. After examining both his left and right feet, the top and bottom of his... center of paper... suggested that additional time should be spent teaching JL comprehensively about diabetic foot care. Additionally, because the teaching tool was implemented on the same day as a diabetic nutrition teaching tool, the patient may have felt overwhelmed by the teaching. In the future, these elements should be identified as barriers to learning and, if possible, avoided. In conclusion, teaching and learning is a complex and essential component of the nursing process. As seen in this case study, it is necessary to use different teaching domains and strategies to help clients remember and apply important aspects vital to their health and quality of life. By providing JL with a diverse teaching tool that includes different types of learning domains, JL has all the information at his fingertips to help him implement his diabetic foot care regimen.