Help patients know who ...

Sometimes when discharging a patient, either from the hospital, same-day surgery, or clinic, you notice he or she — may not remember who to call for follow-up — may not keep the paperwork with follow-up information where he or she could find it — may get confused by the number...

How to share health inf...

Are you planning to share health information on a website? Lots of people and organizations do. But how much do users get out of them? Functional health literacy, as well as the challenges of technology, can make it difficult for users to get what they need. Fortunately, there’s...

Let’s get rid of disc...

I’m wondering if we should even use the term “discharge teaching” any more. That implies we teach at discharge. Clearly, that’s the wrong time to teach – staff don’t have time, and patients just want to leave the hospital. Besides, the content of the education isn’t...

Patients’ percept...

Another study, familiar findings. This study provided patient education in several different ways, and interviewed the learners to collect their perceptions. The findings: “To improve patient education, patients suggested that it should be based on their individual needs...

Apply the research for ...

My book, No Time to Teach summarizes the research in patient education, and presents it so readers can quickly apply it to teach more effectively and efficiently. I continually monitor the research, looking for new methods that may arise. Instead, I seem to find over and over again...

How accurate is liquid ...

We’ve been talking a lot these days about medication errors: wrong drug, wrong dose. We’re also talking about functional health literacy. Treatments we prescribe can get pretty complicated, and some folks just don’t have the skills to safely take care of themselves. So now...