Educating Patients: Creating Teaching Moments in Practice
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Strategies for patients with low health literacy Patients who are identified as having low health literacy require specific strat - egies to assist with learning and com- prehension. It is important for healthcare professionals to focus on what informa- tion the patient wants and needs. Stud- ies have shown that the content patients need involves briefly telling them what’s wrong, telling them what they need to do and why, and emphasizing the bene- fits for them. With medications, there are additional requirements, such as what the medication is, exactly how the medication is taken, why the patient needs the med- ication, what side effects can be expect- ed, and how the patient will benefit from the medication. Using plain language, in words the patient can understand, is vital (AHRQ, 2020a; Maryniak, 2019). Patient understanding, especially for those with low health literacy, can be improved by a few key approaches. The focus should be on “need to know” and “need to do.” Patients state in research that healthcare professionals give a lot of information, and it is difficult to deter - mine the most important items they need to remember. Patients need to know, for example, “what comes next.” In outpa- tient settings, this may be what the pa- tient must know or do when they leave the room or office. Inpatients may need to know what they must do in the hos- pital to meet discharge criteria, or what they need to do at home after discharge. Another example is content, or what the patients need to know about. This may be information about taking medications, referrals or follow-up, or self-care (AHRQ, 2020a; Maryniak, 2019).
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Using an effective teaching method, such as teach-back, is highly recom- mended when working with patients who have low health literacy. Visual materials, demonstrations, and clear- ly written reference materials are also needed (AHRQ, 2020a; Maryniak, 2019). These strategies will be dis- cussed further in this chapter. Learning style assessment As previously discussed, learning styles include auditory, visual, and tactile. There may be some variations in descriptions of styles, including terms such as aural, read/ write, and kinesthetic. Learners may pre- fer a specific learning style, which should be considered. Additionally, multiple tools are available for assessing the learn- ing style of the patient and the healthcare professional. Common learning style as- sessments include the VARK question- naire, Kolb’s Learning Style Inventory, and the Barsch Learning Style Inventory (see the Resources section at the end of this chapter). Some tools involve longer assessments, and a few are more geared toward the learner in a school or other educational setting. The learning style assessment tools have commonalities in that they ask questions about behaviors associated with learning. After scoring, the tools can identify the style or styles with which the person most likely learns best (Holt, 2022; Maryniak, 2019). Adapting to learning styles Healthcare professionals can use multi- ple ways of presenting information while performing patient teaching. It is import- ant to emphasize the learning style of patients to optimize learning, compre- hension, and retention. A combination of
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