Patient Education Management Archives – November 1, 2010
November 1, 2010
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To comply with new TJC standards, toss out restrictive visitation policies
A set of guidelines for changing hospital visitation policies and practices released in August 2010 by the Bethesda, MD-based Institute for Patient-and Family-Centered Care (IPFCC) will help health care institutions meet standards for patient-centered communication issued by The Joint Commission and set to take effect in January 2011, says Joanna Kaufman, RN, MS, an information specialist with IPFCC. -
Advance directives keep communication flowing
Completing advance directives should not be seen as a legal task. While there is a legal component to the document, it is primarily a communication task, says Charlie Sabatino, JD, director of the American Bar Association Commission on Law and Aging in Washington, DC. -
Assessing websites and low health literacy
Patient education managers faithfully assess written materials to make sure they are appropriate for people with low health literacy or poor reading skills. They must be just as diligent when selecting websites for educational purposes, says Abigail Jones, MLIS, MA, consumer health librarian at the Library for Health Information in the Atrium at The Ohio State University Medical Center in Columbus. -
Websites providing easy-to-read info
As a consumer health librarian at The Ohio State University Medical Center in Columbus, Abigail Jones, MLIS, MS, has become skilled at selecting websites that provide appropriate information for patients and families who may not read well or have low health literacy. -
Pay attention to literacy levels
It is no surprise that patients have trouble understanding what health care professionals tell them when you consider that 29% of the population has basic literacy skills and 14% of the population has below basic literacy skills. Another 5% of Americans are not English-literate. This means half the adults in the United States have trouble using written documents to accomplish everyday tasks, according to a report on health literacy from The Joint Commission. -
20 tools address literacy needs
Some of the "tools" in the Health Literacy Universal Precautions Toolkit may not be the typical forms or handouts that many toolkits provide, but they are effective, says Laura Noonan, MD, director of the Center for Advancing Pediatric Excellence at Carolinas Healthcare System in Charlotte, NC. -
Patient ed affects patient satisfaction
What role does patient education play in patient satisfaction scores for health care organizations? How important is patient education to the patient's opinion of the entire health care experience? -
African-American women respond to stories
African-American women were more open to learning about breast self-exam and mammography when stories about cancer survivors were included in an informational video, according to a report published in Patient Education and Counseling.