Low-tech resources to "open the eyes" of a doctor to issues of health literacy?

Submitted by Julie McKinney on Fri, 09/21/2012 - 10:43
  • 2796 Views
  • 6 Comments

Hi Everyone,

This is a question put out by a member. I am starting it in its own "discussion thread" here so we can try to get some ideas.

 

SITUATION: You have a commmitment from a physician  to consider the subject  of adult illeracy and health but only  if you FAX  info  to him

  •  he is not 40 years old
  •  he is not on the net, 
  •  he does not promote or if he has an email ,
  •  he is not aware of the power of the  social media
  •  he is most  reluctantly converting from  paper to electronic  records,       

 Are there  some  essential /  just the facts type items ( as his time is very limited)  you would recommend to the physician with this background  to "open their eyes" to "see" the health implications for the functionally illiterate members of our health community??

I am considering " teasing "  him with some of these items with the hope that he will want to know more:

     Are there any recommendations  for the list?

 

  Thank you

Comments

Have looked and can't find a handout I've used for training in the past...  It is a one page version of patient instructions where the letters within the words are altered (and maybe the word sequence is changed too, I can't recall) to make it much harder for any reader to comprehend - similar to the way written text appears to people with low literacy skills.  Hopefully someone out there knows what I'm referring to and can lay their hands on a copy (or e-copy).  -shb 

Hi, everyone,

The videos the member listed are great but one of my favorites is shorter so you might have better luck getting him to watch it. It's Terry Davis' 6 1/2 min video on being a patient. It's a variety of excerpts from other videos but shorter. You can find it at http://www.acpfoundation.org/materials-and-guides/video/instructional-videos-for-physicians/health-literacy-video.html. (Terry Davis is a fabulous health literacy researcher in Louisiana.) 

A few months ago, I was working with a very busy doctor and trying to help her understand what I was talking about in recommending changes in a consent form. I directed her to a specific minute and second mark in the video and asked her to watch 40 seconds or so. An hour later, she wrote back that she "got it" and she approved my changes!

Best of luck,

Audrey Riffenburgh

 

first    my sincere apology for not answering sooner but  I could not access my account

 

this has been a test of my abilities and they are not in tune yet

I feel somewhat...... illiterate

thank you for the video suggestion which I will add to my  doc list

thank you for taking the time to answer

 

cy

 

 

 

 

Hi, Joan,

It's great to hear from you. I always enjoy reading your insightful posts.

Interestingly, the version of the video I gave the link for does not have time markers. The version I have embedded in my Power Point slides, and use often, does! I guess the AAFP people set it up so the time does not show on their site. Here is the link to the one I use: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ImnlptxIMXs.

Hope that helps,

Audrey