Addressing health disparities can seem overwhelming, especially at a time when health professionals are already under immense demands–and pressures to be almost superhuman. Yet often, the providers I talk to espouse values of equity and justice. National Minority Health Month draws attention to how Americans have experienced variable access to care based on race, ethnicity, socioeconomic […]
Patient Education
Learn two steps to help improve your health communication
“I was listening for the pain. I kept listening for the pain.” This was what a physician said during our debriefing after a role-play. She was the ‘attending,’ another physician played the ‘patient,’ and I was the observer. The role-play was a brief initial patient consultation. During the debrief, we were focused on communication. The […]
4 tips for sharing information with a patient or client
Last week, I was at the Chronic Disease Prevention Symposium, where I gave a plenary session on health literacy. After my talk, there was time for questions. Eventually, one physician raised his hand. Taking the microphone, he said he’d appreciated my talk. Then, he asked (as closely as I can recall): What if we need […]
13 prompts to help you reflect on your patient communication
As you might expect, I often talk with providers about their patient communication, and sometimes those providers are physicians. As with any providers, physicians have their own reasons for seeking some communication support. For instance, one physician put it to me this way: “I do some of the right stuff you’re talking about, but I […]
Health literacy as an interaction, Part 2
“We’re burned by, ‘Tell ‘em what they need to know, and hope they heard.’ It’s the cultural legacy…” A surgeon told me this when we were talking about health literacy. His candor startled me. He went on to make the point that he was convinced he (and his colleagues) could be doing better. Despite […]
Health literacy as an interaction, Part 1
On this date, 14 years ago, Louise Rosenblatt died. She was 100 years old. Louise Rosenblatt was a researcher in reading and writing for nearly the entire 20th century (!!) and into the 21st. Maybe you’ve heard of her. If you haven’t, a Google search for her will yield about 3 billion results. So I’ll […]