Health care illiteracy is a subject near and dear to my heart. Having spent the majority of my career in home health and hospice where I got to spend quality time with patients and their caregivers and loved ones, this issue became very evident in the patient education process. This field affords nurses the opportunity to spend one-on-one time with patients and follow through for a short while to see the effects and hopefully improved outcomes. We all learn in similar and yet different ways. I know I’m a visual and tactile learner. If I can’t watch and touch and do, it’s almost impossible sometimes. So to hand me a…
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Shared Decision Making
We are in the midst of a paradigm shift from a sick care model to a health care model. Nurses (and all other health professionals) are helping patients learn to share the decision making aspects of their care and learning to assume responsibility for their own health status and outcomes. This is a complicated process and a new role for nurses; especially those who are accustomed to doing for the patients. This often stems from time constraints that prohibit nurses from teaching patients. It’s just easier to do it yourself. But as we move towards patient responsibility, patient education becomes much more important. Preventative care and reducing the risks and…
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National Nurse Act of 2011 Continues to Garner Supporters
The National Nurse Act of 2011 (HR 3679) continues to gain support across the country; the latest coming from the NY Assembly. See the National Nursing Network Organization Web Log for details. This act is cost neutral and non-partisan. As preventable diseases continue to rise and drive the cost of health care ever higher (at a time when we can least afford it) the need for public health education is more important than ever. Almost half of Americans are health care illiterate essentially meaning they don’t know what they don’t know and therefore can’t find out answers to help them lead healthier lifestyles and prevent chronic diseases and/or the complications…
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Support the National Nurse Act of 2011
Nearly 50% of adults (over 16) in the US are considered to be health care illiterate. That doesn’t simply mean they can’t read. In fact, many can read quite well. It means that they don’t understand enough about their own health status and about the health care systems to be able to even ask the right questions to find out the answers they need. The Costs of Health Care Illiteracy Handing Joe a pamphlet to read about his newly diagnosed type II diabetes won’t help him to understand what diabetes is (it’s not an allergy to table sugar?), how he needs to adjust his diet and exercise, nor how to…