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Searching for information on health literacy can be a time-consuming task. Yet information is required to support the need for initiatives, create clear and concise documents, or assess the status of an organization in regards to health literacy.
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Many patients on dialysis might not understand medical information critical to their wellbeing, according to a study appearing online for the Clinical Journal of the American Society Nephrology (CJASN).
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How can staff bolster patients' understanding of correct oral contraceptive use after they leave the office? Try these tips from the On the Same Page OCP Health Literacy Project Training Manual:
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During the time a document on plain language was being written at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN, the national health literacy movement was under way.
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The topic of health literacy can be daunting, as there are many factors to address and it impacts the culture of an institution. It is difficult to know how to get your arms around the issue, says Becky Smith, RN, MA, manager of the Section of Patient Education at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN.
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Many healthcare institutions are using the seven goals stated in the National Action Plan to Improve Health Literacy developed by the Department of Health and Human Services to guide health literacy initiatives. The goals include:
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To address the issues of health literacy, St. Vincent Charity Medical Center in Cleveland, OH, made a radical move. It abolished its patient education committee and formed the Health Literacy Institute that consists of an interdisciplinary team of caregivers who are dedicated to improving health literacy through better communication.
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To assess whether nurses practice teaching techniques to improve patient comprehension, they were asked how often they use these techniques "never," "rarely," "occasionally," "most of the time," and "always." Following is their responses:
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When Lorene Payne, EdD, MSN, RN, CNE, a senior nursing instructor in the Nursing Professional Development Department at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, TX, began work on her doctorate, she decided to focus on the question: "Are we as nursing professionals actually putting into practice the methods that help our patients best understand information even though many of them are low health literate?"
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If a patient gives untruthful information to registrars to avoid paying for services, this fraud can result in dangerous clinical outcomes as well as lost revenue.