Nurses, how well are you Communicating with your Patients?

According to a recent exploratory study, there is much room for improvement in the education of patients regarding their health care, with much of the onus falling on nurses. So this begs the question, how well are our nursing students being educated to deliver patient education? In fact, are our nursing students being taught the critical issues surrounding health literacy? The study, published in the ANA's Online Journal of Issues in Nursing, urges:

"...health literacy is a topic that should be threaded throughout the entire nursing curriculum and stressed in each clinical rotation.
New nursing graduates need to be able to:
(a) identify patients at risk for not being able to understand and act on health information,
(b) communicate health information and instructions in a way that promotes patient understanding,
(c) check for patient understanding."

Citation: Sand-Jecklin, K., Murray, B., Summers, B., Watson, J., ( July, 23, 2010) "Educating Nursing Students about Health Literacy: From the Classroom to the Patient Bedside " OJIN: The Online Journal of Issues in Nursing Vol. 15 No. 3.
DOI: 10.3912/OJIN.Vol15No03PPT02

Health Information Literacy: How it Impacts Your Patients

Close to half of all American adults have trouble understanding and using basic health information [states a recent report from the Institute of Medicine]. Most consumer health information and patient education materials are written at the 10th grade level or higher, while the majority of the population read at an 8th grade level or lower, and that is without the medical jargon!

So why worry?

~ "Literacy is the strongest predictor of health status – more than age, income, employment status, race or ethnicity, and educational level!
~ Emergency room patients with inadequate literacy skills are 2X's more likely to be hospitalized.
~ Patients with poor literacy skills are 5X's more likely to misinterpret their prescriptions.
~ People with low literacy skills have 4X's greater annual health costs.
~ The FDA, JCAHO, and NCQA require health care institutions to document evidence that patients have understood the medical information provided to them."

But what can you do about it? How can you identify patients with low literacy?
How can you improve communication with your patients?
Click on the title or here for excellent resources from the Medical Library Association to help you understand and address this issue.

Inflammatory Breast Cancer (IBC)

Dear Colleagues,
I am encouraging you to open and view this video documentary today. It will only take a few minutes and will (I believe) impact your teaching—whether you are basic science or clinically oriented, it has pertinence. It involves a type of breast cancer that even the experts have been failing to notice to the extent of contributing to patient deaths. I, myself, where I teach breast self-exam for men as well as women…have always emphasized looking for LUMPS…newly inverted nipples…breast discharge ~ Inflammatory Breast Cancer however, can present looking like a localized skin infection. If it is treated as such, it can be missed and lead to death, the cancer can be that aggressive! I was impressed enough to send it along. Hope you can take the time to get informed! We teach the people who can make a difference in so many lives even now.
Thanks! Making a difference in healthcare begins with us.
Sincerely,
Dr. Mary Jo Cannon MD
Prof. of Clinical Medicine
UMHS-SK
Click on the title link to the Mayo Clinic site for more information.

Educating Patients Before They Leave the Hospital Reduces Readmissions, Emergency Department Visits and Saves Money

"Patients who have a clear understanding of their after-hospital care instructions, including how to take their medicines and when to make follow-up appointments, are 30 percent less likely to be readmitted or visit the emergency department than patients who lack this information, according to a new study funded by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ)." Press Release Date: February 2, 2009
~ study published February 3, 2009 in the Annals of Internal Medicine.