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Sample Activity
The Health Literacy Environment of Hospitals and Health Centers: Partners for Action: Making Your Healthcare Facility Literacy-Friendly
Recommendations for Oral Exchange Improvement
We suggest that staff members follow these recommendations to ease the burden on patients:
- Ask patients how they learn best (reading, listening).
- Match teaching approaches to learning styles.
- Present a reasonable amount of information at one time.
- Avoid using organizational jargon or specialized words.
- Encourage questions.
- Assume the burden of clear communication by asking if the information or directions were clearly presented. For example, say, "Am I clear?" instead of, "Do you understand?"
- When appropriate, ask patients to repeat key points as though they were telling what they learned to a family member or friend. This approach enables the staff member to fill in missing information.
- Discuss key points of DVD/videos if materials were used in preparing a patient for a test or surgery.
Resources Related to Oral Exchange
Institute of Medicine (IOM). (2004). Health literacy: A prescription to end confusion. Washington , DC : The National Academies Press.
Roter, D. (2005). Health literacy and the patient-provider relationship. In J.G. Schwartzberg, J.B. VanGeest, & C.C. Wang (Eds). Understanding health literacy; implications for medicine and public health. (pp 87-100). Washington , DC : American Medical Association Press.
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). (2003). Communicating health: Priorities and strategies for progress—Action plans to achieve the health communication objectives in Healthy People 2010 . Washington , DC : U.S. Government Printing Office.
Weiss, B.D. (2003). Health literacy: a manual for clinicians. Chicago: American Medical Association Press.