Abstract: Objective To evaluate the effect of team working health education on improving the awareness of patients with thoracolumber vertebra tuberculosis operation. Methods A total of 100 patient with thoracolumber vertebra tuberculosis operation from January to October 2014 in the Department of Orthopedics in the 309th Hospital of PLA were randomly selected. The patients treated from January to May were in the control group, and from June to October were in the experimental group. The team working health education was conducted from June. The primary nurse developed the health education plan, the group leader organized the group education, and the head nurse organized the health education ward round. The scores of patients’ awareness, satisfaction on the nursing, and the accuracy of nursing planning of health education in the two groups were observed and compared by t test. P<0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results The scores of patients’ awareness were (18.21±1.26) and (15.26±1.01), of satisfaction were (96.68±7.62) and (85.88±8.91), and the accuracy of nursing planning were (28.16±6.27) and (23.14±5.13) in the two groups, and those of the experimental group were all significantly higher than the control group (t=12.92, 6.51 and 4.38, P＜0.01). Conclusion The team working health education can improve the nursing competency of health education, and promote the satisfaction of nursing and patients awareness as well.

Key words: Tuberculosis, spinal/nursing, Thoracic vertebrae, Lumbar vertebrae, Health education, Awareness, Patient care planning, Nursing, team