Good article written by a physician who obviously has taken notice. I see the same things within offices as well, as folks do not take a few minutes every day to read, but I can still see, let’s say the medical assistants going to the PC to watch a sports event or read a joke on the internet when it is break or lunch time in the office or just a few slow moments, but yet internally there is no incentive or direction from higher up to encourage many of them to improve their skills and spend a few minutes a week with updating skills and knowledge from what is available for free from the internet.
People may laugh at me, but for this same reason, I use jokes and humor to attract readers to my blog with the hopes that there will be something else of value here and have some return visits, and also still offer a short break with a bit of humor as we all need.
I think the point made here is that it is up to the healthcare facility and employees to somewhat help in the education process with patients and the best way to do that is to take a few minutes themselves to stay updated and current with publications and perhaps methodologies on helping and encouraging patients to be more informed as well. You can’t make them drink but you can certainly lead them to the water. BD
Nobody questions the fact that healthcare is a confusing profession. Doctors and nurses seem to speak in foreign tongues; medicines have names and ingredients that are not even pronounceable; more and more news comes out every day about diseases and conditions that seem to contradict each other. If doctors must devote 12 years of higher education just to get a basic understanding of how the body works, how does a patient hope to know what’s wrong with them?
Most people who are health illiterate either have a job or are retired workers, meaning they are otherwise functional within society.
However, anything professionals can do to facilitate better communication is of the utmost importance for the well-being of our patients. Everybody in the healthcare profession needs to recognize the possibility that patients may not be understanding what is expected of them. Simple changes like providing a plainly written care plan for the patient to take home after every visit can help to avoid potential errors. After an encounter, rather than asking patients if they have any questions, consider instead to ask if there is anything you can explain more clearly. We may not be able to change our patients’ behavior overnight, but we can start by changing our own.
http://brainblogger.com/2008/10/06/the-silent-epidemic-of-health-illiteracy/
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