The following message is from Julie McKinney, the Moderator of the NIFL
Health Literacy List. This not only sounds like a good opportunity to
get your adult learners writing, but it also gives you a chance to do
some modeling of the writing process for them. Read on.

 

 

 

The health literacy list is in the middle of a discussion about
communicating clearly between patients and health care providers
(including doctors, nurses, radiologists, nutritionists, pharmacists and
many others.) I have always believed that health care providers could
learn a lot from teachers who work with adult learners, and from adult
learners themselves. So I want to invite you all to share your thoughts
and experiences in communicating about health and medical care, and
propose an activity to do with your classes to explore these
communication issues. 

 

We would like to share stories from adult learners with the health
professionals on the discussion list. These can be about experiences
communicating with health care providers, or challenges in navigating
the health system and environment. We will at some point have a
follow-up to this discussion and highlight more student/patient stories.

We are also collecting them for the Health Page on the ALE Wiki. You can
see what we have so far at this link:

http://wiki.literacytent.org/index.php/Health_Literacy (Click on
"Stories from learners and patients")

 

Here is a link to information about this week's discussion and guest

speakers:

http://www.nifl.gov/lincs/discussions/healthliteracy/07healthcommunicati
on.html

 

 

You can find out more about the health literacy discussion list, read
the recent discussion, and subscribe for free at this link: 

www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/healthliteracy

 

Below are some questions to ask yourselves and your learners, and some
guidelines for a writing activity. Please feel free to send in your
thoughts or stories to this list, or you can join the health list
briefly to join the discussion. The discussion goes through Monday the
22nd, but as I said, we will have a week of follow-up at some point, so
let me know if you are working on thsi with your class, and I will give
you more information. 

 

Thanks so much,

Julie

 

 

**********************

 

These are questions to think about:

 

1.    When you walk out of a doctor's office after an appointment, how

do you feel about what the doctor told you?

2.    What makes it hard for you to understand what your doctor is

saying?

3.    Do you ask the questions that you want to ask your doctor? Why

or why not?

4.    How well do you understand the written brochures that you get

from doctors? Do you use them by looking at them later? Why or why not?

5.    What helps to make all of these things easier?

6.    If you could make a list of suggestions for your doctor, or for

the clinic or hospital, what would you say? (These are suggestions for
how they could make it easier for you to understand what is happening
with your health, and what you need to do to stay healthy.)

 

Here are some guidelines for a class writing activity for anyone who is

interested:

 

To write a story:

 

1.  

Introduce yourself. You can decide what to say, but here are some ideas
of what you could include: 

*     where your home is

*     what you do

*     who lives with you

*     why you care about your family's health

*     how long you have been studying English or reading and writing. 

 

2.  

Think of an experience when you were in an appointment, and you walked
out feeling like you did not really understand what happened, or what
you were supposed to do. It could be a doctor's appointment, or some
other specialist. (For example, getting some kind of test or x-ray, or
meeting with a nutritionist.) Write about what happened, and why you
feel that the information was not clear to you. This doesn't have to be
long, and you can have your teacher or someone else help with the
writing, but it should be your writing and your own words. It doesn't
have to be perfect! (No one will check the spelling and grammar. We just
want to hear about your experience.)

 

Here are some ideas for teachers to write about:

 

1. In what ways can you, as an ABE or ESOL teacher, help your students
to communicate more effectively in an encounter with a health
professional?

2. Have you ever addressed health commmunication ( or vocabulary, etc.)
in your classes? 

3. How do students respond to health as a content area?

4. Have you ever collaborated with a health care professional or a
community health clinic or hospital? If so, how did it go?

5. What advice would you give to others who are less used to
communicating with people who are learning English or literacy skills?

 

*******************************

Thanks again! Please let me know if you do this activity and how it
went!

 

Julie McKinney

Discussion List Moderator

World Education/NCSALL

jmckinney at worlded.org

 

 

 

Gail J. Price

Multimedia Specialist

National Center for Family Literacy

325 W. Main Street, Suite 300

Louisville, KY 40202

gprice at famlit.org

502 584-1133, ext. 112

 

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