Has YouTube helped to c...

We used to think patients and families were spoiled by the quality of television and movies, and would not be interested in patient teaching videos made in-house. We thought they’d be so distracted by the poor camera work and lighting, they wouldn’t pay attention to the...

Using Pictographs and P...

Recently Joint Commission released Advancing Effective Communication, Cultural Competence, and Patient- and Family-Centered Care: A Roadmap for Hospitals (2010). This monograph offers recommendations to help hospitals address unique patient needs, meet the new patient-centered communication...

Evidence-based patient ...

The National Guideline Clearinghouse offers links to a number of government sources for handouts which are related to their guidelines. Find these links at: http://www.guidelines.gov/resources/patient-education.aspx

Free – Joint Comm...

Current evidence on how to most effectively teach patients and families is the basis of both the Joint Commission standards and the advice in No Time to Teach: The Essence of Patient and Family Education for Health Care Providers. So I am pleased to announce Joint Commission is...

For links to the latest...

Did you know Twitter is not just about telling the world what you had for lunch? In addition to maintaining this website, I regularly tweet links to the latest in patient education. Follow me on Twitter @notimetoteach You can sign up for Twitter at www.twitter.com. You don’t...

Using social media for ...

One group of patients have poorer health outcomes because of socio-economic disparities and low functional health literacy. In response, health care providers are actively learning the skills to reach and help them, by providing clearly written handouts, asking them to teach back...

Evidence-based ways to ...

A great deal of patient education content is now focusing on the treatment of obesity. Nutrition has been in the forefront for years, with good fats and bad fats, good carbs and bad carbs, antioxidants and anti-inflammatories. But weight loss depends on burning more calories than...

Helping heart failure p...

A recent qualitative study from the University of Groningen Medical Center (in The Netherlands) looked for reasons for and barriers to compliance with the self-care plan. Their conclusions: “To improve compliance in HF [heart failure] patients, patient-tailored interventions...

What do stage 3 chronic...

Every once in a while, a study is published asking a group of patients what they would like to learn more about. The results almost always differ from what the health care professionals are teaching. Another study of this sort has been published by Lewis, Stabler, and Welch (2010)....

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...