A physician was talking with me about an article I wrote on metaphors, a few months ago. He agreed it was a hot topic, and an important one to stop and take time to consider: “Metaphors and analogies are something we do casually, without much thought,” he said. “Sometimes the metaphor did not give the […]
Reflective Practice
Make this one change to improve your patient education
A while ago, I wrote a piece called 5 steps to improve your patient education. I promised I would gradually dig deeper into each of the 5 steps. Last month I dove into the topic of patients’ background knowledge and how it can help you. This time, it’s about your subject matter. Your medical knowledge. […]
Why addressing unconscious bias can make people nervous
Last week I was in Baltimore, at the International Conference on Communication in Healthcare/Health Literacy Annual Research Conference. Every one of the keynote addresses discussed biases and stereotypes. Every one. (Biases and stereotypes was not the conference theme.) The importance of examining and addressing unconscious biases seems to be well understood in the research community. […]
If you wonder about these health communication issues, you’re not alone
When things go wrong at work–or something just bugs us–it can be easy to push these negative thoughts aside and move on. It’s especially easy to dismiss our concerns if we don’t hear others talking about similar issues. Maybe, we tell ourselves, it’s nothing. Or we assume it’s a problem no one else has. So it shouldn’t […]
5 ways patient background knowledge can help you (and your patient)
A few weeks ago I wrote about 5 steps you could take to improve your patient education. I promised I would dig deeper into that material. That’s what this article is about. Specifically, we’re taking a closer look at patient knowledge. Let’s start with some data: Elisabeth is describing her first meeting with her new […]
5 steps to improve your patient education
Frequently, when I am talking to providers about heath communication, or health literacy, we end up talking about patient education. That makes sense; there are many connections among these subjects. And I’m an educator. But physicians are often frustrated when their patient education doesn’t have its intended effect. One physician put it to me this […]