Hi Len and Ceci,

I agree with your last point 100%

When a person is really sick, they go to a doctor or hospital, they 
don't learn how to read better.  Sick people are sick, they are less 
able, maybe not able at all, to take care of themselves.  Nurses, 
doctors, administrators, architects must design services so everyone 
who is sick can be taken care of.  This means educating and training (2 
different functions).

As for people who will eventually be patients--I have thought that 
field trips to hospitals would be in order.  Literacy lessons could 
grow out of that--very FCE (Functional Context Education).

As I write this, I think there must be a meeting of minds (and bodies) 
between literacy teachers and doctors, nurses, etc.  I am ignorant 
about  what is being done--does this already happen?

Thanks.

Andrea

On Sep 19, 2007, at 1:53 PM, Lendoak at aol.com wrote:


> Dear Cynthia and list,

>  

> Thank you for your comments on the 2003 NAAL data on literacy and 

> health literacy.  And we agree with your suggested action to address 

> the individuals, the (healthcare) systems, and their  interaction.  

> However, we suggest that the majority of effort be focused on the 

> latter two, for the following reasons:

>  

> 1. Large improvement in the literacy skills of the adult US population 

> will take many decades if it is practical at all.  We see little or no 

> improvement when comparing the NAAL data of 1993 with the recent NAAL 

> data. Our tutoring experience, and that of others, shows that 

> "success" is helping the adult student advance about two grade levels 

> after a year of hard study - if you can motivate them to hang in there 

> for a year. 

>  

> Future decades may be brighter for children who may be helped by 

> federal and state education initiatives.

>  

> 2. Methodologies are well researched and documented on ways to make 

> written (and other) forms of communication easier to understand, and 

> more motivating. But these methods are barely used, most likely 

> because those producing the written health care instructions are not 

> trained in these methods.  For example, a few years ago after one of 

> our workshops a health  educator said to us:"I've graduated with an 

> MPH from one of the best universities in the country, and I never 

> heard of readability formulas, or the many other ways you've presented 

> on how to make instructions more understandable."

>  

> Such training needs to be a part of every curriculum for health care 

> professionals. It would not be enough to train just state and federal 

> agency health workers because hospitals and clinics produce most of 

> the written health care instructions. (Over the years Ceci and I 

> analyzed the suitability of over 2,000 such instructions from a very 

> broad range of sources and noticed that over two thirds of the written 

> materials were produced by hospitals and clinics rather than 

> government and private agencies.)

>  

> 3. Awareness of the benefits of patient-with-provider interaction 

> seems to be just beginning. The Pfizer sponsored "Ask Me 3" project is 

> a hopeful start.  The health care systems are not likely to give 

> doctors more time to interact with patients, so less costly, and 

> trained,  health personnel need to be added to do this. A few clinics 

> already do. 

>  

> CDC, HHS and AHRQ and others could do a lot to improve interaction by 

> sponsoring research to show the huge payoffs that would accrue in both 

> costs and patient wellness.  Social marketing programs could use the 

> benefits data to promote change.

>

>  

> In summary, NAAL data show where the people are in terms of literacy 

> and health literacy.  So much effort goes into measuring the skills of 

> the population.  History shows us that the people aren't going to 

> change much. 

> Isn't it time to give equal effort to measure the health communication 

> skills of our health care systems; and then train our professionals to 

> do better? 

>  

> Does anyone have a list of current programs to do this training?

>  

> Len and Ceci Doak

>

>

>

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