Navigating any health care facility requires sophisticated literacy skills

From a Medpage Today posting by by Rima Rudd, ScD

“…Expectations and assumptions about average literacy lead to a mismatch between people’s actual skills and health systems’ processes and procedures. This remains surprisingly true even after the publication and widespread dissemination of findings from the U.S. Department of Education’s national adult literacy survey in 1992 and in 2003. Findings indicated that a majority of U.S. adults have difficulty using commonly found print materials to accomplish mundane tasks with accuracy. Furthermore, they provide evidence that a large percentage of adults have difficulty applying basic math skills to everyday activities – such as determining a discount or the correct dosage for over-the-counter medicine….

…

For now, I bring your attention to something we often take for granted – our work environments and the activities faced by outsiders as they try to navigate health institutions.

I will use a hospital as an example

To read the whole blog item, click here

Related Resources

• The Health Literacy Activity Packet: First Impressions and a Walking Interview (Rima E. Rudd, MSPH, ScD, Harvard School of Public Health)
• Health Literacy and Cultural Competency (Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality)
• Improving Health Information Literacy (Nebraska Methodist College Library Guide by Angela Arner)

Hospitals Misleading Patients About Benefits Of Robotic Surgery

From the 18 May Medical News Today article

An estimated four in 10 hospital websites in the United States publicize the use of robotic surgery, with the lion’s share touting its clinical superiority despite a lack of scientific evidence that robotic surgery is any better than conventional operations, a new Johns Hopkins study finds.

The promotional materials, researchers report online in the Journal for Healthcare Quality, overestimate the benefits of surgical robots, largely ignore the risks and are strongly influenced by the product’s manufacturer.

[An abstract of the article may be found here.
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“The public regards a hospital’s official website as an authoritative source of medical information in the voice of a physician,” says Marty Makary, M.D., M.P.H., an associate professor of surgery at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and the study’s leader. “But in this case, hospitals have outsourced patient education content to the device manufacturer, allowing industry to make claims that are unsubstantiated by the literature. It’s dishonest and it’s misleading.”

Click here to read the rest of the Medical News Today article

Scientific Study Proves That Goat Milk Can Be Considered As Functional Food

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From the 19 May 2011 Medical News Today article

Researchers at the University of Granada have found that goat milk has nutritional characteristics beneficial to health. They have determined that goat milk has many nutrients that make it similar to human milk….

Click here to read the rest of the article. Goat milk benefits include low lactose, potential to aid anemia sufferers, and richness in calcium and phosphorous.

Validate Complaint Before Responding

From the 19 May 2011 Medical News Today article

…Listening, saying sorry, and validating the complaint by repeating the complaint word for word – or least paraphrasing – can solve the majority of the problems and diminish the need for fights. Sometimes people just want to be heard…hear their complaints and gripes about life validated. Doesn’t mean necessarily you’re wrong and they’re right….they just need to blow off steam. Also, for some people after hearing their complaint repeated back it makes them realize they’re making a mountain out of a mole hill….they’re being unfair, unreasonable, and even silly. ….

..Source: Sorry Works! (“advocacy organization for disclosure, apology (when appropriate), and upfront compensation (when necessary) after adverse medical events.”)

Click here to read the entire Medical News Today article

Related articles

• 10 steps to a successful complaint (telegraph.co.uk)

NAPNAP Releases New Position Statement On Child Maltreatment

From the 19 May 2011 Medical News Today article

The National Association of Pediatric Nurse Practitioners’ (NAPNAP) Executive Board approved a new NAPNAP Position Statement on Child Maltreatment. Child maltreatment is a major public health concern in the U.S. and has negative consequences on emotional and physical development in children which often with effects lasting a lifetime and into future generations.

This Position Statement supports efforts for primary prevention of child maltreatment, including assessing for risk and protective factors, educating parents and caregivers and providing assistance to families in crisis. The statement also encourages all pediatric nurse practitioner programs and other medical training programs to include comprehensive education in the area of child maltreatment. NAPNAP also supports increased funding for further child maltreatment research studies, including prevention efforts, intervention research and theory testing. To view the statement online click here. …

Related articles

• Society may be willing to pay a high price to prevent child abuse and neglect, study suggests (esciencenews.com)
• Deborah Daro, Ph.D.: Protecting Children Is The Responsibility Of All Of Us (huffingtonpost.com)
• Who Are the Perpetrators of Child Abuse? (psychologytoday.com)
• Bullying and its Relation to Child Abuse, Sexual Victimization, Domestic Violence, and … (education.com)
• A Constitutional Birthright: the State, Parentage, and the Rights of Newborn Persons (endhereditaryreligion.com)
• One in five pupils at secondary schools tell of childhood trauma in NSPCC survey (innocentvoicesuk.com)

Explosion Of Opportunities Exposes Problem Gamblers

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From the 19 May 2011 Medical News Today article

A new paper by University of Calgary psychologist Dr. David Hodgins says the proliferation of gambling opportunities around the world, particularly online, is increasing the visibility of gambling disorders and giving access to people who previously had no exposure to gambling opportunities.

Hodgins, head of the university’s Addictive Behaviours Laboratory, says gambling disorders are often found in conjunction with other mental health and substance-abuse disorders. In an online version of the medical journal, The Lancet, Hodgins says the study of problem gambling is relatively recent and further understanding is needed to find root causes and treatment implications.

[ The abstract of the article may be found here.

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“Most of our progress in recognizing and understanding gambling disorders has been made in the past 25 years,” says Hodgins. “Our knowledge continues to evolve in parallel with a burgeoning availability of gambling opportunities. Internet gambling, for example, is providing around-the-clock home access to several types of gambling activities to an increasing number of people around the world.”

The prevalence of gambling disorders worldwide is highly variable, ranging from 1 in 500 people in Norway to as high as 1 in 20 people in Hong Kong. In the USA, about one per cent of the population are pathological gamblers, with a further one to two per cent categorized as problem gamblers….

Click here to read the rest of the article

Related articles

• Australians: Among the Biggest Gamblers on Earth (theworld.org)
• Clubs accused of distorting problem gambling extent (theage.com.au)