Training Family Medicine Residents in Effective Communication Skills While Utilizing Promotoras as Standardized Patients in OSCEs: A Health Literacy Curriculum

Introduction. Future health care providers need to be trained in the knowledge and skills to effectively communicate with their patients with limited health literacy. The purpose of this study is to develop and evaluate a curriculum designed to increase residents’ health literacy knowledge, improve communication skills, and work with an interpreter. Materials and Methods. Family Medicine residents N=25 participated in a health literacy training which included didactic lectures and an objective structured clinical examination (OSCE). Community promotoras acted as standardized patients and evaluated the residents’ ability to measure their patients’ health literacy, communicate effectively using the teach-back and Ask Me 3 methods, and appropriately use an interpreter. Pre- and postknowledge, attitudes, and postdidactic feedback were obtained. We compared OSCE scores from the group that received training (didactic group) and previous graduates. Residents reported the skills they used in practice three months later. Results. Family Medicine residents showed an increase in health literacy knowledge p=0.001 and scored in the adequately to expertly performed range in the OSCE. Residents reported using the teach-back method (77.8%) and a translator more effectively (77.8%) three months later. Conclusions. Our innovative health literacy OSCE can be replicated for medical learners at all levels of training.

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Effect of Patients’ Life Stories in Bringing Meaning to Nursing Home Care

PRiMER ◽

10.22454/primer.2019.181832 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 3 ◽

Author(s):

Jane Qu ◽

Laura N. Goldman ◽

Joanne E. Wilkinson

Keyword(s):

Nursing Home ◽

Family Medicine ◽

Home Care ◽

Health Care Providers ◽

Life Stories ◽

Nursing Home Care ◽

Semistructured Interview ◽

Care Providers ◽

Nursing Home Patients ◽

Family Medicine Residents

Introduction: Although there is an increasing need for geriatricians, fewer physicians are entering the field. Family medicine residents find geriatrics, especially nursing home care, unsatisfying. Life stories of older adult patients may help providers cope with the challenges of nursing home care and increase provider satisfaction by offering a way to connect with patients. Methods: We conducted a qualitative study on life stories’ effects on attitudes towards nursing home care. Fourteen patient stories were created. Seven Boston University family medicine residents and one nurse practitioner participated in a semistructured interview both before and at least 2 months after learning about their patients’ stories. Data were analyzed using qualitative techniques from grounded theory. Results: Participants found nursing home care challenging, particularly for patients who were nonverbal due to advanced dementia, because they had difficulties forming meaningful relationships or discussing medical decisions with their patients. Life stories increased empathy, deepened relationships with patients, and led participants to feel more satisfied in their role as providers. The stories were considered useful for end-of-life discussions. Conclusion: Life stories incorporated into physician practice may help health care providers feel more connected to their patients and ultimately more satisfied in the care of nursing home patients.

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Plain Language Pediatrics

10.1542/9781581104417 ◽

2008 ◽

Author(s):

Mary Ann Abrams ◽

Benard P. Dreyer

Keyword(s):

Health Care ◽

Health Literacy ◽

Patient Education ◽

Health Care Providers ◽

Care Providers ◽

Plain Language ◽

Reading Levels ◽

Limited Health Literacy ◽

Ear Infections ◽

Limited Health

An essential tool to help improve communication between pediatrician and patient or family, Plain Language Pediatrics offers a framework for implementing a plain language approach to communication in your office, and provides specific steps you can take to ensure the information you present to patients and their parents is clearly understood. Included are 25 reproducible plain language patient education handouts--in English and Spanish! Plain Language Pediatrics combines health literacy and plain language principles to present information in a way that makes it as easy as possible for everyone to understand, and applies these principles to a variety of ambulatory acute, chronic, and preventive conditions. Common pediatric topics such as asthma, ADHD, ear infections, and medical dosing are addressed in detail. This robust resource is divided into 2 parts. Part I explores limited health literacy, including the scope of the problem, how it affects children in particular, and how health care providers can address and overcome health literacy issues with patients and their caregivers. At the heart of Part II is a new series of 25 reproducible patient education handouts in English and Spanish that feature need-to-know information up front, health care terms and jargon, practical pronunciation guides, low reading levels, user-friendly layouts, and simple, purposeful illustrations.

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Health Literacy and Multicultural Populations

Perspectives on Communication Disorders and Sciences in Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Populations ◽

10.1044/cds18.3.79 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 18 (3) ◽

pp. 79-87

Author(s):

Mercedes Benitez McCrary ◽

Eva Jackson Hester

Keyword(s):

Health Care ◽

Health Literacy ◽

Health Care Providers ◽

Care Providers ◽

Low Literacy ◽

Positive Health ◽

Limited Health Literacy ◽

Cultural Variations ◽

Health Care Communication ◽

Major Factors

Health literacy is recognized as one of the major factors related to positive health outcomes and involves understanding, accessing, and using health information to make necessary health decisions. However, many members of multicultural populations demonstrate limited health literacy due to language barriers, health-care providers' limited knowledge of cultural variations, health-care communication restrictions, and low literacy levels as related to educational attainment. These problems become more complex for people with speech, language, and hearing problems and result in higher risk for inadequate health literacy. In this article, we review the status of health literacy and health-care communication of multicultural populations and offer suggestions for speech-language pathologists and audiologists to improve health literacy.

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Long-term Effects of a Health Literacy Curriculum for Family Medicine Residents

PRiMER ◽

10.22454/primer.2017.703541 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 1 ◽

Author(s):

Cliff Coleman ◽

Sylvia Peterson-Perry ◽

Bhavaya Sachdeva ◽

Amy Kobus ◽

Roger Garvin

Keyword(s):

Health Literacy ◽

Family Medicine ◽

Health Care Professionals ◽

Literacy Curriculum ◽

Communication Behaviors ◽

Literacy Knowledge ◽

Clear Communication ◽

Family Medicine Residents

Introduction: Improving education about health literacy for health care professionals has been recommended, and many US family medicine residency programs have developed such curricula. Few studies have evaluated the effectiveness of health literacy curricula for health care professionals. This pilot study aimed to determine whether a longitudinal health literacy curriculum for family medicine residents could achieve long-term sustained improvements in health literacy knowledge and clear communication practices. Methods: Self-reported pre- and postassessments were conducted for a series of four health literacy didactic and experiential trainings over 11 months with a cohort of 12 first-year family medicine residents (study adequately powered for cohort of 10 or more). Results: Five out of five health literacy knowledge items showed sustained significant improvement immediately after the initial didactic training. Two out of eight clear communication behaviors (eliciting patients’ questions through an open-ended approach, and using a teach-back method to check for patients’ understanding) showed sustained significant improvements in the 11-month follow-up period. The remaining six behaviors demonstrated a saw-tooth pattern, wherein each training session produced improvements in planned behaviors, which were, however, not maintained at subsequent follow-up assessments. Conclusions: These data suggest that residents learned the cognitive material related to health literacy and clear communication easily, but had difficulty integrating many trained skills into clinical practice, despite the use of experiential learning techniques. Future studies should use an observational design to assess clear communication behaviors, and should include assessment of potential barriers to implementing clear communication skills in clinical practice.

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Utilizing Standardized Patients to Enhance Health Literacy Communication Skills

MedEdPORTAL ◽

10.15766/mep_2374-8265.1101 ◽

2008 ◽

Vol 4 (1) ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Lisa Howley ◽

Christine Peterson ◽

Eugene Barrett ◽

John Gazewood ◽

William Wilson ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Health Literacy ◽

Communication Skills ◽

Standardized Patients

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Malaysian Health Literacy: Scorecard Performance from a National Survey

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health ◽

10.3390/ijerph18115813 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 18 (11) ◽

pp. 5813

Author(s):

Norrafizah Jaafar ◽

Komathi Perialathan ◽

Manimaran Krishnan ◽

Nurashma Juatan ◽

Masitah Ahmad ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Health Literacy ◽

Nationwide Survey ◽

Population Based ◽

Average Score ◽

Future Health ◽

Limited Health Literacy ◽

Health Literacy Level ◽

Prevention And Health Promotion ◽

Literacy Level ◽

Limited Health

Health literacy is an indicator of a society’s ability to make better health judgements for themselves and the people around them. This study investigated the prevalence of health literacy among Malaysian adults and provided an overall picture of the society’s current health literacy status, which has not been previously assessed. The study also highlighted socio-demographic markers of communities with limited health literacy that may warrant future intervention. A population-based self-administered survey using the Health Literacy Survey Malaysian Questionnaire18 (HLS-M-Q18) instrument was conducted as part of the National Health Morbidity Survey 2019 in Malaysia. The nationwide survey utilized a two-staged stratified random sampling method. A sample of 9478 individuals aged 18 and above, drawn from the living quarter list, participated in the study. The health literacy score was divided into three levels; limited, sufficient, and excellent. Findings showed a majority of the Malaysian population had a sufficient health literacy level in all three domains—healthcare, diseases prevention and health promotion (49.1%, 44.2%, and 47.5%, respectively)—albeit leaning towards the lower end of the category with an average score of 35.5. The limited health literacy groups were prevalent among respondents with older age (68%), lower education level (64.8%), and lower household income (49.5%). The overall health literacy status for Malaysia was categorized at a lower sufficiency level. Future health literacy improvements should focus on communities with a limited health literacy level to improve the overall score.

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Multi-source evaluation of interpersonal and communication skills of family medicine residents

Advances in Health Sciences Education ◽

10.1007/s10459-011-9345-9 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 17 (5) ◽

pp. 717-726 ◽

Cited By ~ 6

Author(s):

Kai-Kuen Leung ◽

Wei-Dan Wang ◽

Yen-Yuan Chen

Keyword(s):

Family Medicine ◽

Communication Skills ◽

Source Evaluation ◽

Family Medicine Residents

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Interrelationships Between Patients’ Data Tracking Practices, Data Sharing Practices, and Health Literacy: Onsite Survey Study

Journal of Medical Internet Research ◽

10.2196/18937 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 22 (12) ◽

pp. e18937

Author(s):

Yuhan Luo ◽

Chi Young Oh ◽

Beth St Jean ◽

Eun Kyoung Choe

Keyword(s):

Health Care ◽

Health Literacy ◽

Data Sharing ◽

Health Care Providers ◽

Clinic Visit ◽

Survey Study ◽

Sufficient Information ◽

Full Potential ◽

Care Providers ◽

Data Tracking

Background Although the use of patient-generated data (PGD) in the optimization of patient care shows great promise, little is known about whether patients who track their PGD necessarily share the data with their clinicians. Meanwhile, health literacy—an important construct that captures an individual’s ability to manage their health and to engage with their health care providers—has often been neglected in prior studies focused on PGD tracking and sharing. To leverage the full potential of PGD, it is necessary to bridge the gap between patients’ data tracking and data sharing practices by first understanding the interrelationships between these practices and the factors contributing to these practices. Objective This study aims to systematically examine the interrelationships between PGD tracking practices, data sharing practices, and health literacy among individual patients. Methods We surveyed 109 patients at the time they met with a clinician at a university health center, unlike prior research that often examined patients’ retrospective experience after some time had passed since their clinic visit. The survey consisted of 39 questions asking patients about their PGD tracking and sharing practices based on their current clinical encounter. The survey also contained questions related to the participants’ health literacy. All the participants completed the survey on a tablet device. The onsite survey study enabled us to collect ecologically valid data based on patients’ immediate experiences situated within their clinic visit. Results We found no evidence that tracking PGD was related to self-reports of having sufficient information to manage one’s health; however, the number of data types participants tracked positively related to their self-assessed ability to actively engage with health care providers. Participants’ data tracking practices and their health literacy did not relate to their data sharing practices; however, their ability to engage with health care providers positively related to their willingness to share their data with clinicians in the future. Participants reported several benefits of, and barriers to, sharing their PGD with clinicians. Conclusions Although tracking PGD could help patients better engage with health care providers, it may not provide patients with sufficient information to manage their health. The gaps between tracking and sharing PGD with health care providers call for efforts to inform patients of how their data relate to their health and to facilitate efficient clinician-patient communication. To realize the full potential of PGD and to promote individuals’ health literacy, empowering patients to effectively track and share their PGD is important—both technologies and health care providers can play important roles.

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Medication Errors

Advances in Medical Education, Research, and Ethics - Organizational Culture and Ethics in Modern Medicine ◽

10.4018/978-1-4666-9658-7.ch005 ◽

2016 ◽

pp. 111-120

Author(s):

Titilola T. Obilade

Keyword(s):

Health Care ◽

Health Literacy ◽

Medication Errors ◽

Health Care Providers ◽

Research Articles ◽

Care Providers ◽

Health Literacy Level ◽

Literacy Level ◽

Prevention Of Medication Errors

Depending on the statistics examined, medication errors are responsible for 44000 to 400000 deaths annually. This chapter examined the role of societal attributes in medication errors. Although several studies have been conducted on medication errors there is still no uniformity in the definitions which makes evaluation of medication errors difficult. Despite the non-uniformity of definitions, all the research articles reviewed agreed that enhanced oral and written communications between health care providers and patients or parents of patients was a step towards the prevention of medication errors. The health literacy level of both health care providers and consumers also contribute to medication errors.

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