Insights from Practice
and
Voices from Experience
Insights from Practice
Lessons and Tips for Addressing Health Literacy Issues in a Medical Setting
by Sally Ebeling, MS
Citation: Ebeling S. Lessons and
tips for addressing health literacy issues in a medical setting.
Harvard School of Public Health: Health Literacy Website. 2003. Available at
http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/healthliteracy/insights.html. Accessed "insert
date."
“Health Literacy” is now on the national agenda and carries many implications for health care providers. One important concern has to do with clarity of communication between patients and providers. For example, the management of chronic diseases over years has become increasingly complicated for patients. Patients need to have information and the skills to make use of that information to understand their illness, to monitor symptoms, to use measurement tools, to schedule appointments and medicines in order to self-manage their conditions. However, current office practice allows little time for each visit. Consequently, providers routinely expect patients to know more than they actually do and to be prepared to manage complicated instructions and procedures.
Physicians and other health care providers can improve their communication effectiveness. We are posting some initial lessons and best-practice tips, suggestions, and recommendations gleaned both from the literature and from experienced practitioners. We hope to engage you in adding to this site.
Lessons and Tips from the Literature (Click here for more information)
- Adults who cannot read often hide that fact successfully, but most have adequate intelligence to understand and to compensate for lack of reading skills.
- Adults at all literacy levels prefer simple health education materials.
- Patient-centered interviewing is the best model to address health literacy.
- Providers, especially physicians, must partner with office staff in health literacy efforts.
References from the Literature
Lessons and Tips from the Field (Click here for more information)
- Communicate with all patients on a basic level, without jargon.
- Give the patient a chance to tell his/her story uninterrupted.
- Limit new concepts to a maximum of 3 per visit.
- Use pictures, graphics, and real devices for demonstration.
- Ask questions beginning with “how” and “what” to ensure comprehension.
- Convey information orally and use written material mostly as a back-up.
About the Interview Study
Submit Your Lessons and Tips
TOP OF PAGE
Voices from Experience
These quotes were collected from people in a variety of settings – adult education centers, hospitals and clinics – and give insight into first hand experiences navigating and accessing health care.
“As a child growing up, I would have liked to have seen the insides of a body, inside of a nose, inside of a throat, so I could tell where it hurts, what hurts, by the name…I still don’t know everything that’s in my neck and my throat. I’m not a doctor…but I would like to know what they’re talking about, that I know the locality or what it looks like.”
“I think it’s really important to understand what [medicines] you’re taking…certainly I read all of the papers that come from the pharmacy, but they’re not always complete with information. Whenever I see a brochure in the hospital or an article in the paper or a magazine, I try to read…I have to be my own researcher.”
“…you can get lost in this hospital…I go to one doctor’s office…I go there all the time…I know where it is. But it’s when I have to go to a new doctor, they give you directions…I get lost.”
“I have a very good doctor…he takes the time to explain things and break it down to you…Sometimes, though, you do get stuff that—like when I first came home from the hospital and I had all this, these forms and things I had to read…some words I come across I just can’t quite understand. That can be hard.”
“…simply put, if they [doctors] could explain in very simple English. You know, very simple terms because a lot of people aren’t that educated. A lot of people didn’t go to medical school. So when they use these medical words and abbreviations, it doesn’t help.”
“Whatever is wrong with me, I want people to talk to me on my own terms. They’ll throw out big words. They’ll talk to me and they’ll use some fancy word. I’ll say, ‘What the heck is that?’ I don’t let them get by with it. I speak right up. I say, ‘This is my body…I want to know what’s wrong with me. You tell me. I’m paying you.”
“…I think that some of the words [in brochures], they ought to put a parenthesis and tell them in English…Everybody hasn’t gone through school and graduated from college or high school…They should put it down so that…if you went to the 5th or 6th grade you could understand, plain English in other words.”
“…I won’t talk to someone who’s not going to use words that are going to be easy to understand because he [the doctor] should know better…if he starts using high medical terms that only someone who goes to medical college is going to know about, what’s they saying about him?”
“When they give me these things [inhalers] and explain it to me, I always repeat it back to make sure that I’m very clear about how I am taking these things.”
“I had an eye doctor once who wanted me to take this drug because I have glaucoma, the starting of it. Well, after I read what the back of the bottle said I didn’t take that. I said, ‘I have enough health problems.’ It said it would affect your kidneys. It will affect your liver. It will affect your heart. I said, ‘No.’ I just wouldn’t do it.”
TOP OF PAGE
|
