Patient Education Help for Clinicians!
A recent study published in the Annals of Emergency Medicine found that over 75% of patients did not understand at least one part of their discharge instructions. Many other articles talk about the same issues related to a variety of settings and conditions.
Although there is not a single magic bullet to instantly solve all comprehension issues, there are a variety of materials available to help you provide the most effective patient care. Some of these are available to you as a part of library resource subscriptions, and some are available for free from government sources. A few places to start are MedlinePlus, the Micromedex CareNotes™ System, MD Consult, and Access Medicine.
When deciding which resource is best for a particular situation, some points to think about are:
- What grade level is it written at? Most experts recommend 4th grade or lower.
- Does it print out well? If you want to hand it out, you want something brief that prints effectively. You may also want a print-out for documentation purposes.
- Does it give your patient the option to get more information? Your patient may have further questions, or need terms defined.
- Does it come in multiple languages? Even if your patient speaks enough English to get through an appointment, he or she may still understand highly complex instructions or descriptions better in another language.
- Who wrote it?
Stayed tuned — we will be discussing specific patient education resources in further detail in future posts!
