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Health literacy: Making sense of medicine
6 Plays5 months ago
Patients may hear their clinician, but do they really understand them? In this episode, April and Alicia tackle the myths and misunderstandings surrounding health literacy. From mixed messages to medical jargon, they test each other's knowledge on the facts, fictions, and ways clearer communication can transform care.
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Transcript
Retirement Dreams and Nor'easter Tales
00:00:00
Speaker
honestly are going to be when you're like old and older and you know retired and you're like what am i going to do with my life i'm going to see you in this pickup truck with this storm the gold satellite capture thing in the back of your car running around chasing storms that's what you're going to be done this is on call this would be really cool to just wear scrubs all the time and you don't have to think about what you're going to wear to work that is awesome we're here to answer your questions we can sit down and discuss them
00:00:27
Speaker
Wait, I got to go.
00:00:28
Speaker
I'm on call.
00:00:29
Speaker
Wait, you're on call?
00:00:29
Speaker
I thought I was on call.
00:00:34
Speaker
Welcome back, everyone, to another episode of On Call with April and Alicia.
00:00:37
Speaker
I'm April.
00:00:39
Speaker
I'm Alicia.
00:00:40
Speaker
We're back in April.
00:00:41
Speaker
I don't want to talk.
00:00:41
Speaker
We don't need to waste any more time.
00:00:43
Speaker
I need to tell you something immediately.
00:00:45
Speaker
Let me hear it.
00:00:45
Speaker
Okay.
00:00:46
Speaker
You should have known this, but guess what?
00:00:48
Speaker
I was kind of in a hurricane, kind of in a hurricane.
00:00:51
Speaker
It was a nor'easter, but I'm going to call it a hurricane, like a level one.
00:00:54
Speaker
I think you're the only one in the entire world that says that with such an excited nature.
00:00:58
Speaker
I was excited.
00:00:58
Speaker
I didn't even want you to say, hi, I'm April and I'm Alicia.
00:01:01
Speaker
I was just like, who cares?
00:01:02
Speaker
We got to talk about this.
00:01:03
Speaker
I feel like.
00:01:07
Speaker
Was this back when you were like, hey, you're in a nor'easter?
00:01:09
Speaker
Yes,
Weather's Impact on Events
00:01:10
Speaker
I'm in a nor'easter.
00:01:10
Speaker
That's when I was telling you, like, do you understand what you're in the middle of right now, April?
00:01:15
Speaker
Yeah, I'm in the middle of a lot of rain.
00:01:16
Speaker
That's amazing.
00:01:19
Speaker
I thought it was amazing.
00:01:19
Speaker
I know it's past now, but I've been chomping at the bit to tell you because I went to Savannah.
00:01:24
Speaker
or a wedding with all the kids and we're on this house.
00:01:27
Speaker
It's kind of like, like right on Tybee Island, which is connected to Savannah, just a little island off of it.
00:01:34
Speaker
And the house kind of sits back like more in a marsh.
00:01:38
Speaker
So it's not quite like wasn't on the ocean or anything, but you could see, you know, like the water from a distance if you're up on the third floor.
00:01:46
Speaker
And like when a tide comes in, the tide would come in to come in through the marsh.
00:01:50
Speaker
And it was like really cool because it would fill up this dock.
00:01:52
Speaker
And then all of a sudden, like the tide would go out and then you're like, wow, it's just like dry kind of ish, you know, marshy, whatever.
00:02:00
Speaker
And I went down to the beach the first day we got there and I went early because I love like when nobody's at the water and just like the sunrise.
00:02:07
Speaker
So cool.
00:02:08
Speaker
It was windy.
00:02:10
Speaker
And I was like, these waves were probably, I mean, for Atlantic, I
00:02:14
Speaker
three, four foot swells are kind of big if there's not a storm, you know what I mean?
00:02:18
Speaker
And I was like, what in the heck?
00:02:19
Speaker
And it just so happens Carl, who's our vice president of recruiting for Sound, he lives in that area.
00:02:24
Speaker
And I pinged him and I said, wow, like there's some onshore winds coming.
00:02:28
Speaker
He goes, yeah, there's a nor'easter.
00:02:30
Speaker
And I was like, what?
00:02:31
Speaker
I had no idea.
00:02:32
Speaker
And the whole time I was down there, the weather was getting more and more, more.
00:02:36
Speaker
But now I felt bad for Maya, whose wedding we were there to celebrate because it was kind of inside outside.
00:02:41
Speaker
And I thought, oh,
00:02:42
Speaker
It's going to get rained out.
00:02:43
Speaker
But by the time I left, our whole house was surrounded by ocean water and went out into the main street.
00:02:52
Speaker
So we are actually delayed.
00:02:54
Speaker
Probably we had to wait for tide to go out.
00:02:56
Speaker
So it at least pulled out a little bit because even the highway was underwater.
00:02:59
Speaker
But I understand it was like worse to the north.
00:03:02
Speaker
But for purposes of just braggadocious rights,
00:03:07
Speaker
By wind gusts, I was technically in an almost level one hurricane.
00:03:11
Speaker
Tropical storm.
00:03:12
Speaker
Close.
00:03:14
Speaker
And you survived.
00:03:15
Speaker
I survived.
00:03:16
Speaker
Now I'm ready for a level two.
00:03:18
Speaker
Cat two.
00:03:18
Speaker
All right.
00:03:19
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So now I just probably need to go to Dallas or somewhere on the Gulf.
00:03:26
Speaker
So, yes, but all by chance, I didn't even check the weather.
00:03:28
Speaker
You honestly are going to be, when you're, like, old and older and, you know, retired, and you're like, what am I going to do with my life?
00:03:35
Speaker
I'm going to see you in this pickup truck with this storm.
00:03:38
Speaker
Big old satellite on the top of it.
00:03:39
Speaker
Catcher thing in the back of your car, running around chasing storms.
00:03:43
Speaker
That's what you're going to be doing.
00:03:44
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Yes.
00:03:45
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Oh, this was a close call.
00:03:46
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April almost got in a tornado, but...
00:03:49
Speaker
Yes, I think I'm just going to be like wild.
00:03:51
Speaker
I'll just wear a life alert bracelet or life alert necklace in case I need some help.
00:03:55
Speaker
But yeah, make sure that's linked to somebody who will check it.
00:03:58
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It was incredible, though.
00:04:00
Speaker
It was so incredible.
00:04:01
Speaker
And we had Stephanie Byrne on our podcast before.
00:04:05
Speaker
She just moved back to Virginia.
00:04:08
Speaker
And she was sending me some videos from them.
00:04:11
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They I mean, they had like 10 foot.
00:04:13
Speaker
They had huge waves coming in and in the area of Virginia she was at.
00:04:17
Speaker
And that's why I was asking you a jersey, because it looks like the thing they showed some video on the news that showed this like drop off.
00:04:26
Speaker
at one of the it was on a jersey shore i just don't know like what part of it and if you look at it it just looks like a little break in the sand but for context like the guy
Reflections on Time and Life
00:04:35
Speaker
zoomed in and you could see people that were standing like so it put it in perspective it had to have been a 10 foot drop off of that that beach completely crumbled wow we have there was some flooding in ocean city which is closer to us um but like inland we you know we just got rain we rained for several days
00:04:56
Speaker
It looks like the coastline all the way up has just been battered.
00:05:02
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I think all the offshore hurricane, which I was, I'm happy there was not a hurricane so far that has hit the United States and caused any kind of harm to anyone.
00:05:11
Speaker
However, it's kind of like my Super Bowl season.
00:05:14
Speaker
Like I kind of like this is the suckiest hurricane season ever.
00:05:18
Speaker
But that's terrible.
00:05:21
Speaker
I need to stop while I'm ahead.
00:05:23
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Yes, yes.
00:05:24
Speaker
Just stop right there.
00:05:25
Speaker
That's enough of that.
00:05:26
Speaker
Anyway, I got my Christmas gift early this year.
00:05:28
Speaker
I'm kind of excited.
00:05:29
Speaker
So there you go.
00:05:30
Speaker
Here we are.
00:05:31
Speaker
Here we are.
00:05:31
Speaker
How are you guys doing?
00:05:33
Speaker
We're doing good.
00:05:34
Speaker
You know, in the thick of fall sports and all the things.
00:05:38
Speaker
So...
00:05:40
Speaker
I can't believe that it's like almost Halloween and almost November.
00:05:44
Speaker
It's nuts.
00:05:45
Speaker
Stop it.
00:05:45
Speaker
I can't do it.
00:05:46
Speaker
I can't do it.
00:05:49
Speaker
I don't know where the year went and every year gets faster.
00:05:52
Speaker
And I've always, you hear that growing up, you know, when you're a kid and they're like, hey, you know, like, don't take this for granted because one day you're going to want and you're like, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:06:02
Speaker
I just want to get out of school.
00:06:03
Speaker
And then you're like out of school and you're like, I got to go to work.
00:06:06
Speaker
Crap.
00:06:06
Speaker
I kind of wish I was back in school.
00:06:09
Speaker
You know, time flies, time with our kids fly, time with everything.
00:06:14
Speaker
I think as the kids get older, it goes faster because we're busier.
00:06:17
Speaker
You know, like it's every week.
00:06:19
Speaker
I'm like, oh, another week is by.
00:06:20
Speaker
Oh, we're just kidding.
00:06:21
Speaker
Another month is by.
00:06:22
Speaker
Oh, it's another year.
00:06:23
Speaker
It is.
00:06:23
Speaker
I'm like, I barely just started writing 2025.
00:06:26
Speaker
No joke.
00:06:27
Speaker
I know.
00:06:28
Speaker
And I'm going to have to start thinking about 26.
00:06:30
Speaker
But I have a friend that summed it up the best.
00:06:32
Speaker
And I've been saying this consistently for like a year.
00:06:35
Speaker
Time is a thief.
00:06:36
Speaker
It just is a thief.
00:06:39
Speaker
It's gone that quick.
00:06:41
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So be present.
00:06:42
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It is.
00:06:43
Speaker
Enjoy the hurricanes in the nor'easters folks.
00:06:45
Speaker
It's exciting.
00:06:46
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There you go.
00:06:47
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I know.
Understanding Health Literacy
00:06:48
Speaker
Well, listen, we are coming up to the end of October and October is health literacy month.
00:06:55
Speaker
So I thought maybe we could talk a little bit about health literacy, but in our.
00:07:01
Speaker
typical fashion, right?
00:07:03
Speaker
OK, yeah, like it's health literacy month.
00:07:06
Speaker
Let's do some health literacy, true or false, fact or fiction, just some health literacy trivia.
00:07:12
Speaker
But for those of you guys that don't know what health literacy is, health literacy isn't just like about reading or writing.
00:07:18
Speaker
it's really about how well people can understand and use health information as like patients can use this information to make decisions about your care so it's really the difference between knowing what a prescription says and then like knowing how to take it right um i do you ever find how many patients or even family members um i'll say my son for example he had he's got um
00:07:41
Speaker
tinea versicolor and he has been trying some topical creams with his dermatologist but it's not working really well and so he had to end up getting pl or some oral medication but when he was at the pharmacy he's like what do i ask them and i'm like well he and he's over 18 so i can't do his work for him but he's like i said you're asking for your prescription he goes i don't know what the name of it is and i was like most people don't
00:08:04
Speaker
You know, they don't know.
00:08:06
Speaker
They just go, this is my blood pressure pill and this is my cholesterol pill and this is my diabetes pill, you know, like that.
00:08:13
Speaker
But it is, it's important for us to know, you know, not just what it says.
00:08:17
Speaker
I know I'm supposed to take it twice a day, but like, how do you safely take it?
00:08:21
Speaker
What are you, what are you doing with it?
00:08:23
Speaker
You know, like,
00:08:24
Speaker
And the wild part, though, is that studies have shown that like nine out of 10 adults in the U.S., they struggle with health information.
00:08:32
Speaker
And that's the smartest people.
00:08:34
Speaker
They could totally misinterpret something like a medication label, a test result or something on your insurance form.
00:08:40
Speaker
So, yeah.
00:08:42
Speaker
To me and for us, I think this month would not just be really about awareness, but empowerment and making our health information clear, clear for us as providers to our patients and clear, accessible, understandable for our patients.
00:08:54
Speaker
So today we're going to talk health literacy.
00:08:57
Speaker
We're going to test ourselves.
00:08:58
Speaker
We're going to test you listeners and we're going to do a couple of true and false or some, you know, faker for real, however you want to call it.
00:09:05
Speaker
But we're going to do this about health literacy.
00:09:06
Speaker
And let's see between the two of us who is the most health literate.
00:09:11
Speaker
All right, so we're keeping score.
00:09:13
Speaker
We're keeping score unless I lose.
00:09:16
Speaker
Okay.
00:09:16
Speaker
Then that's about what I would expect you to say.
00:09:18
Speaker
Your pen will run out of ink.
00:09:21
Speaker
Lucky for you, I have like 10 pens, so I'm ready.
00:09:24
Speaker
I'm sure you do, April.
00:09:27
Speaker
It does not surprise me.
00:09:29
Speaker
Yep, it didn't.
00:09:30
Speaker
All right.
00:09:31
Speaker
Well, I guess I'll ask first.
00:09:33
Speaker
You go first.
00:09:35
Speaker
I'm going to start off by breaking the rules, and we're going to go multiple choice instead of true or false.
00:09:39
Speaker
Oh, gosh.
00:09:41
Speaker
podcast is over.
00:09:42
Speaker
Anyway, hopefully this was a great episode, everybody.
00:09:44
Speaker
Thank you for listening.
00:09:46
Speaker
April's breaking the rules.
00:09:47
Speaker
Let's go.
00:09:48
Speaker
Breaking the rules.
00:09:49
Speaker
All right.
00:09:50
Speaker
Are you ready?
00:09:51
Speaker
I'm ready.
00:09:52
Speaker
Let's go.
00:09:52
Speaker
All right.
00:09:53
Speaker
Which of the following is not a type of health literacy included in the definition?
00:09:59
Speaker
A, personal health literacy, B, cultural health literacy, and C, organizational health literacy.
00:10:08
Speaker
I'm going to say organizational.
00:10:11
Speaker
you are wrong i don't even know what any of those things are by the way so that's why i asked the question because i think people should know what it is right do tell absolutely do tell
00:10:23
Speaker
All right, so the definition of health literacy was actually updated in August of 2020.
00:10:30
Speaker
And so the original definition was just one definition, right?
00:10:34
Speaker
Which is what you've already talked about, you know, basically the ability to find and understand information.
00:10:40
Speaker
But the new update, so the new definition actually talked,
00:10:44
Speaker
And I separated out personal and organizational health literacy.
00:10:46
Speaker
So personal health literacy is the degree to which individuals have the ability to find, understand and use information and services to inform health related decisions and actions for themselves and others.
00:10:59
Speaker
Whereas organizational health literacy is the degree to which organizations equitably enable individual individuals to find, understand, and use information to help make those decisions.
00:11:10
Speaker
So personal is like, you're getting that information, processing it, figuring out what to do for yourself, or maybe it's for a family member, right?
00:11:18
Speaker
That you're making those decisions for, but organizational is more about the fact that organization should equitably make that information available to you so that you can educate yourself.
00:11:29
Speaker
Interesting.
00:11:30
Speaker
Yeah.
00:11:31
Speaker
So the new definitions, but it's yeah.
00:11:33
Speaker
Yeah.
00:11:34
Speaker
So the new definitions really emphasize like, you know, the ability to use health information rather than to just understand it.
00:11:40
Speaker
It focuses on making well-informed decisions rather than kind of just appropriate ones and acknowledging that organizations have a responsibility to address it, health literacy, and incorporating a public health perspective as well.
00:11:53
Speaker
So.
00:11:53
Speaker
Wow.
00:11:55
Speaker
That was like a lecture.
00:11:57
Speaker
Yeah.
00:11:57
Speaker
I know that's a lot of information that I didn't know.
00:12:00
Speaker
So I was like really having to listen to here.
00:12:02
Speaker
I was like, oh, wow.
00:12:04
Speaker
I know it was interesting.
00:12:05
Speaker
So like that organizational definition, it really gets to that kind of health equity piece, right?
00:12:10
Speaker
Like trying to make sure that the highest level of, you know, information, things like that is available for all people.
00:12:19
Speaker
So.
00:12:21
Speaker
Okay.
00:12:22
Speaker
Well.
00:12:24
Speaker
Lots of layers that I didn't know existed.
00:12:26
Speaker
Lord have mercy.
00:12:27
Speaker
I don't think you've ever hit us with a question this hard.
00:12:30
Speaker
I probably wouldn't have gotten it right.
00:12:33
Speaker
Even if I had a second to study it.
00:12:35
Speaker
Wow.
00:12:35
Speaker
Okay.
00:12:36
Speaker
Well, I just learned something.
00:12:37
Speaker
So I'm going to give you a very easy one because I made mine very easy for you today.
00:12:41
Speaker
This is why we won't keep score.
00:12:43
Speaker
Nope.
00:12:44
Speaker
All right.
00:12:46
Speaker
All right.
00:12:46
Speaker
That's all right.
00:12:47
Speaker
These are important things to talk about.
00:12:48
Speaker
So I'm going to say true or false.
00:12:52
Speaker
Okay.
00:12:52
Speaker
If you can read or write,
00:12:54
Speaker
you automatically have good health literacy.
00:12:57
Speaker
False.
00:12:58
Speaker
Yeah, I knew you'd get that, but it's important.
00:13:01
Speaker
You ever had that patient who just like nods yes to everything, like only to find out they didn't understand, like, don't take this with food, right?
00:13:09
Speaker
Like when you're telling them everything or you put wrote it on a piece of paper and they're like, uh-huh, uh-huh, uh-huh.
00:13:14
Speaker
And they still were like, oh, I missed that part.
00:13:16
Speaker
Yeah, happens all the time.
00:13:17
Speaker
Health literacy is just, it's more than basic literacy just because we can read and write.
00:13:22
Speaker
It really is more the ability to understand and use that health information.
00:13:26
Speaker
So someone might be able to fluently read.
00:13:28
Speaker
And I think they tell us in health care that
00:13:31
Speaker
most of our patients, what do they say, third grade, that we deliver our materials at like a third or fifth grade level because we don't make an assumption that everyone has the same level of education.
00:13:44
Speaker
But people could be very, very brilliant.
00:13:47
Speaker
They could read
Challenges in Health Literacy
00:13:48
Speaker
fluently, but they still could struggle to follow complex medical directions or just insurance jargon.
00:13:53
Speaker
Even really educated people can get lost.
00:13:56
Speaker
in the sea of all the acronyms that we have in medicine and numbers and forms and talk.
00:14:00
Speaker
And I think we also know that we talk in a whole different language that is very familiar to you and I. I find myself saying like, no, just do that PRN to my kid.
00:14:11
Speaker
And they're like, what?
00:14:12
Speaker
PRN.
00:14:12
Speaker
And they're like, oh, that's not what I meant.
00:14:15
Speaker
Or I'll do like even my shorthand.
00:14:18
Speaker
I'll still write medically in shorthand sometimes, like with...
00:14:21
Speaker
Like see with the line over it, like some weird stuff.
00:14:24
Speaker
Yeah.
00:14:24
Speaker
So yeah, anyway.
00:14:27
Speaker
All right.
00:14:28
Speaker
It is interesting because that we talk about this because like when I train new providers or when I precepted students, I would always give them like a topic, you know, within the day and say, go home and read about this topic and we'll talk about it tomorrow.
00:14:42
Speaker
Right.
00:14:42
Speaker
To like, make sure that they're reading.
00:14:44
Speaker
And one of the things that I would do is I would always say, okay, so they're going to, you know, they always come back and they have their paper, you
00:14:50
Speaker
And they just regurgitate, you know, that medical jargon that they read on the internet the night before from a book or from whatever.
00:14:56
Speaker
And I always used to tell them, okay, put your paper away.
00:14:59
Speaker
And now explain that to me like I'm a patient that doesn't know what you're talking about.
00:15:05
Speaker
Because I don't think that we get...
00:15:07
Speaker
Like it's not always part of the training, right?
00:15:10
Speaker
Probably how much training you get on that depends on your clinical rotations and things like that.
00:15:14
Speaker
But, and it's also something that you just have to get used to doing, you know, like I used to sit down and draw pictures for patients and I love drawing pictures of the heart that are terrible or the gallbladder or whatever it may be.
00:15:25
Speaker
But I always incorporate that for some reason.
00:15:29
Speaker
I don't know.
00:15:29
Speaker
Yeah.
00:15:30
Speaker
Yeah.
00:15:31
Speaker
When I draw a heart, it's a very weird heart, but yes, I know what you mean.
00:15:34
Speaker
You know, so that's important.
00:15:36
Speaker
So if you're a provider and you're training a new provider, maybe, you know, think of adopting that strategy because it is important that you develop that skill.
00:15:44
Speaker
I love that.
00:15:46
Speaker
Thank you.
00:15:46
Speaker
So I'm winning.
00:15:47
Speaker
Let's go.
00:15:47
Speaker
Yep.
00:15:48
Speaker
Okay.
00:15:49
Speaker
So you're losing.
00:15:49
Speaker
So we'll go to my next question.
00:15:51
Speaker
I'm winning because you got it right.
00:15:55
Speaker
I've changed the score.
00:15:56
Speaker
In some weird logic.
00:15:56
Speaker
So whoever, if you get it right, if you get my questions right, I win.
00:16:00
Speaker
Oh, I see.
00:16:01
Speaker
Okay.
00:16:01
Speaker
Yeah.
00:16:03
Speaker
Some backwards knowledge there.
00:16:04
Speaker
All right.
00:16:05
Speaker
Terrible to play with as a child, by the way.
00:16:07
Speaker
I would have hated playing games with you.
00:16:09
Speaker
I still, I have no desire to play games with you as an adult.
00:16:12
Speaker
Just so you know.
00:16:12
Speaker
We've talked about talking about the monopoly board.
00:16:14
Speaker
Don't bring cards to our conference next week.
00:16:16
Speaker
I'm going to.
00:16:18
Speaker
Everything's a competition.
00:16:19
Speaker
Let's go.
00:16:20
Speaker
Five siblings.
00:16:20
Speaker
What do you think it's going to be like?
00:16:21
Speaker
I know.
00:16:22
Speaker
You've got to compete for everything.
00:16:24
Speaker
Food, attention, bed space, the fan, the air conditioner, all of those.
00:16:28
Speaker
The bathroom.
00:16:29
Speaker
We had to fight for everything.
00:16:30
Speaker
Everything's a competition.
00:16:31
Speaker
All right.
00:16:34
Speaker
All right.
00:16:34
Speaker
You're up.
00:16:35
Speaker
I have another multiple choice for you.
00:16:38
Speaker
Good gravy.
00:16:39
Speaker
I know.
00:16:40
Speaker
All right.
00:16:40
Speaker
You're a little easier.
00:16:42
Speaker
All right.
00:16:42
Speaker
Limited health literacy is associated with all the following except.
Health Literacy Trivia and Digital Literacy
00:16:47
Speaker
Say it one more time.
00:16:48
Speaker
Limited health literacy is associated with all the following except.
00:16:52
Speaker
Are you ready?
00:16:53
Speaker
Yeah.
00:16:54
Speaker
A, lower health care costs.
00:16:55
Speaker
Closing my eyes and focusing.
00:16:57
Speaker
Go ahead.
00:16:58
Speaker
A, lower health care costs.
00:16:59
Speaker
B, worse health outcomes.
00:17:02
Speaker
C, decreased ability to adopt healthy behaviors.
00:17:06
Speaker
Now, you know, I'm going to ask you to read those again.
00:17:08
Speaker
One more time.
00:17:11
Speaker
A, lower healthcare costs.
00:17:13
Speaker
B, worse health outcomes.
00:17:16
Speaker
C, decreased ability to adopt healthy behaviors.
00:17:21
Speaker
I have no idea.
00:17:23
Speaker
Oh my God.
00:17:24
Speaker
I can't believe I stumped you so bad today.
00:17:26
Speaker
I think it's because I can't see the question.
00:17:28
Speaker
So now I've already forgotten what the question is.
00:17:30
Speaker
I'm like, so tell me the question one more time.
00:17:34
Speaker
Which is not associated with limited health literacy.
00:17:37
Speaker
Got it.
00:17:38
Speaker
Lower costs, worse outcomes, or ability to adopt decreased ability to adopt healthy behaviors.
00:17:44
Speaker
I'm going to say C. Nope.
00:17:47
Speaker
Is it B?
00:17:48
Speaker
Nope.
00:17:49
Speaker
Oh, wow.
00:17:50
Speaker
Those are the two.
00:17:51
Speaker
I'm telling you, multiple choice gets me, April.
00:17:54
Speaker
And I think that's why you choose that because I cannot look at the question and you have figured out my kryptonite.
00:18:01
Speaker
This is not fair.
00:18:03
Speaker
It's totally fair.
00:18:04
Speaker
Well, pretend you're a provider talking to me.
00:18:07
Speaker
And if you just gave me as a patient, a multiple choice question, this is not health literate, April.
00:18:14
Speaker
Okay.
00:18:16
Speaker
Okay.
00:18:16
Speaker
Tell me about it.
00:18:18
Speaker
So as you mentioned, this does impact about nine out of 10 people, but
00:18:23
Speaker
So limited health literacy.
00:18:25
Speaker
So if people aren't able to really obtain process and understand that information, then it really affects your ability to use that health information.
00:18:36
Speaker
Right.
00:18:36
Speaker
So when we get to adopting healthy behaviors, like if you can't understand sort of what the if you can't say, OK, this is my disease and these are the factors that I need to address in my life.
00:18:46
Speaker
like, you know, lifestyle modifications or whatever it is to improve my disease, then it's harder for you to adopt that if you don't understand that, right?
00:18:54
Speaker
Also harder to adopt on any, like act on any important public health alerts.
00:18:59
Speaker
And so this results in having worse health outcomes and higher costs, right?
00:19:03
Speaker
So if you don't understand...
00:19:05
Speaker
sort of kind of how the healthcare system works and, you know, what you have going on and saying, okay, like, this is my problem.
00:19:12
Speaker
This is my symptoms that I'm having.
00:19:13
Speaker
And these are the type of physicians I could see.
00:19:16
Speaker
And I'm going to go, you know, to this person.
00:19:18
Speaker
And instead you're just in the ER all the time for an example.
00:19:21
Speaker
Right.
00:19:22
Speaker
And then, so there's a high cost of going to the ER or maybe you're just not getting the right care.
00:19:26
Speaker
You need not leading to the right diagnosis, which means you have a worse outcome.
00:19:30
Speaker
Right.
00:19:30
Speaker
So if we're not diagnosing and treating the right thing.
00:19:33
Speaker
So,
00:19:34
Speaker
Having that limited health literacy can impact all of those things.
00:19:37
Speaker
So instead of having lower health care costs, which was the answer to that question, it's actually higher health care costs.
00:19:44
Speaker
Interesting.
00:19:46
Speaker
Okay.
00:19:47
Speaker
All right.
00:19:47
Speaker
Well, you've come out of the.
00:19:49
Speaker
You've come out of the gate with some like, I don't know, we're talking like doctorate level questions today or something.
00:19:54
Speaker
I don't know why you're trying to stress me out, April, but that's fine.
00:19:59
Speaker
I'm still going to keep giving you an easy one.
00:20:01
Speaker
I'm just kidding.
00:20:01
Speaker
You're not stressing me out.
00:20:03
Speaker
But I think it's a multiple choice.
00:20:05
Speaker
It gets me.
00:20:06
Speaker
Okay.
00:20:06
Speaker
Next time I'm doing all multiple choice for you.
00:20:09
Speaker
I'm just doing all multiple choice so you can get them all wrong.
00:20:11
Speaker
Okay.
00:20:11
Speaker
Okay.
00:20:12
Speaker
All right.
00:20:12
Speaker
So you're probably gonna get this one right, but this is, this is a good one anyway.
00:20:17
Speaker
High health literacy, true or false?
00:20:19
Speaker
High health literacy means someone is really good at finding information online.
00:20:25
Speaker
False.
00:20:26
Speaker
Right.
00:20:26
Speaker
But why is it false?
00:20:27
Speaker
Do you know?
00:20:28
Speaker
Because they can find the information, but you also have to like process it and understand it.
00:20:32
Speaker
Yes.
00:20:33
Speaker
know what it's saying, right?
00:20:35
Speaker
You're right.
00:20:35
Speaker
And that's actually called digital literacy.
00:20:38
Speaker
Isn't that interesting?
00:20:39
Speaker
I didn't know that because I didn't know such a thing existed.
00:20:41
Speaker
But no, that's actually, in fact, digital literacy.
00:20:44
Speaker
It's related, but it's distinct.
00:20:46
Speaker
Health literacy includes evaluating whether the source is reliable, right?
00:20:51
Speaker
A person might be really good at Googling before it like spotting misinformation or paid content disguised as something that would be credible.
00:20:59
Speaker
But true health literacy means asking people
00:21:02
Speaker
Who wrote this and why?
00:21:04
Speaker
Now I want to challenge you with something.
00:21:07
Speaker
I want to give you a health tip.
00:21:10
Speaker
And I want you to tell me, I'm going to give you two health tips that I pulled up online.
00:21:14
Speaker
Okay.
00:21:14
Speaker
One is real and one is fake.
00:21:17
Speaker
So this is like a two part question, but I already got it right.
00:21:21
Speaker
You did get it right, but this is for bonus points.
00:21:23
Speaker
So you get it writer, writer, writer, writer.
00:21:26
Speaker
All right.
00:21:28
Speaker
So health tip number one,
00:21:31
Speaker
Drinking a glass of lemon water, this is a real tip from online.
00:21:36
Speaker
Drinking a glass of lemon water every morning detoxifies your liver and balances your body's pH.
00:21:40
Speaker
It's one of the simplest ways to cleanse your system naturally.
Evaluating Online Health Information
00:21:44
Speaker
That's health tip number one.
00:21:45
Speaker
Okay.
00:21:46
Speaker
Health tip number two.
00:21:48
Speaker
Washing your hands with soap and water for at least 20 seconds is the most effective way to prevent infections and reduce the spread of illness.
00:21:55
Speaker
Number two is correct.
00:21:57
Speaker
You are, right.
00:21:58
Speaker
But you see what I mean?
00:21:59
Speaker
Yeah.
00:21:59
Speaker
Like drinking a glass of lemon water every morning, like digital literacy is so important because lemon water is great for dehydration, right?
00:22:09
Speaker
It's got a little vitamin C in it, but your liver is already detoxifying your body.
00:22:15
Speaker
So lemon...
00:22:17
Speaker
doesn't really need to help the liver do that.
00:22:19
Speaker
And the pH balancing is a little bit more pseudoscience right now.
00:22:25
Speaker
Our body regulates its own pH.
00:22:28
Speaker
So the really, like really the only benefit in that health tip would be just drink more water, you know?
00:22:35
Speaker
But detoxifying your liver is, it sounds good, but that's what it does.
00:22:41
Speaker
Unless you've got a faulty liver, at which point your hepatologist should probably be talking to you.
00:22:45
Speaker
Not Google, you know?
00:22:46
Speaker
Right.
00:22:47
Speaker
Anyway, I just thought that was a little bit fun.
00:22:50
Speaker
No, that is fun.
00:22:50
Speaker
Let's go one more round.
00:22:51
Speaker
But it's, you know, to that extent.
00:22:54
Speaker
Yeah.
00:22:54
Speaker
I mean, we have patients all the time that come in and say, oh, well, I Googled this, right?
00:22:59
Speaker
And they have, you know, what they think their diagnosis is or what they think we should be doing.
00:23:05
Speaker
How do you handle those conversations?
00:23:06
Speaker
Like, what's your advice to patients in those?
00:23:09
Speaker
I think I, you know what?
00:23:10
Speaker
We talked about this, I think, last year sometime.
00:23:13
Speaker
And we talked about YouTube University, especially during COVID and all of the misinformation that was coming out there.
00:23:21
Speaker
So I, one, I try to acknowledge their core fear, you know?
00:23:28
Speaker
So number one, what is it that they're looking for?
00:23:30
Speaker
They've got a fear.
00:23:31
Speaker
They're obviously concerned about their health.
00:23:33
Speaker
I do try to, and I try to understand how the patient's going to hear me.
00:23:37
Speaker
And every patient listens different.
00:23:38
Speaker
Some patients want a lot of information, a lot of, you know,
00:23:43
Speaker
Data.
00:23:43
Speaker
I'm a data person.
00:23:44
Speaker
Show me data.
00:23:46
Speaker
Let me read it.
00:23:47
Speaker
Let me see it.
00:23:47
Speaker
Let me understand it.
00:23:49
Speaker
Package inserts, probably one of the only providers you'll know that reads a PI for every medication.
00:23:54
Speaker
I don't know why.
00:23:55
Speaker
I just do.
00:23:58
Speaker
But then there's other patients that may be a little bit more visual, right?
00:24:02
Speaker
You've got to be a little bit more creative.
00:24:04
Speaker
Some people are visual in the sense of pictures.
00:24:07
Speaker
Some need it written down as tasks.
00:24:09
Speaker
I think I try to, one, approach the concern, approach the fear, and then share what I know about what they're saying, what I know to be incorrect and why it concerns me that they may do it this way.
00:24:23
Speaker
Right.
00:24:24
Speaker
And try to navigate that way.
00:24:26
Speaker
And sometimes you got to meet them in the middle.
00:24:28
Speaker
And sometimes they're just hell bent on the fact that they are going to.
00:24:33
Speaker
Follow this way, this whatever, and you've you've got to you got to try to build trust.
00:24:39
Speaker
And once if they're trusting online, what it tells me is they trust themselves a bit more than they trust the health care industry.
00:24:46
Speaker
So, yeah, sometimes it's just about building a relationship and we don't always have the benefit of doing that.
00:24:53
Speaker
In the hospital.
00:24:54
Speaker
Yeah.
00:24:54
Speaker
I mean, you know, we're not primary care providers, but if you've got a longer term patient, yes.
00:24:59
Speaker
Sometimes you've only got that 20, 30 minute visit to do it.
00:25:03
Speaker
So that's, that's how I approach it.
00:25:05
Speaker
How do you do it?
00:25:06
Speaker
Yeah, I think it's similar.
00:25:08
Speaker
You know, and I, I also, so one thing I would say is that
00:25:13
Speaker
I mean, I do it too, right?
00:25:14
Speaker
I Google things.
00:25:16
Speaker
I mean, it's just that I happen to use UpToDate, which is like an evidence-based thing because I have access to that, right?
00:25:21
Speaker
So I always kind of talk to my patients about that the internet can be a very helpful thing, but like we just said with your question, is that you have to make sure it's a reputable source if you're going to be searching on the internet.
00:25:35
Speaker
And I also kind of talk to them too about, because you can...
00:25:39
Speaker
you can easily go down a rabbit hole and read about like worst case scenarios and all that stuff and really make yourself more anxious and nervous than you were when you started googling you know so um i always talk to them about that about making sure that it's a reputable source if they are going to to read about it so that's smart and yeah maybe even just putting together a handful of websites that are reputable i wonder if hospitals do that
00:26:04
Speaker
I don't know.
00:26:05
Speaker
I've actually never seen one.
00:26:06
Speaker
Me neither.
00:26:07
Speaker
But hey, trademark.
00:26:09
Speaker
Yeah.
00:26:09
Speaker
Trademark.
00:26:09
Speaker
Trademark.
00:26:11
Speaker
Right.
00:26:11
Speaker
You guys hear it.
00:26:12
Speaker
This is our idea.
00:26:12
Speaker
Okay.
00:26:14
Speaker
There's going to be no more on call with April Alicia because we're going to be off here in the beach.
00:26:17
Speaker
No, we'll still on call it because we could do it all day.
00:26:19
Speaker
You might get two episodes a week at this point.
00:26:20
Speaker
We're fine.
00:26:21
Speaker
We've retired.
00:26:23
Speaker
No more a call room.
00:26:25
Speaker
We're on call virtually from a distance.
00:26:30
Speaker
All right, let's go one more round.
00:26:31
Speaker
One more round.
00:26:32
Speaker
Okay.
00:26:32
Speaker
All right.
00:26:33
Speaker
I will bless you with a true or false question here.
00:26:36
Speaker
Yay!
00:26:36
Speaker
That I think is super easy, so you can get a point on that right side there.
00:26:40
Speaker
All right, ready?
00:26:41
Speaker
Yes.
00:26:42
Speaker
True or false.
00:26:43
Speaker
There are strategies that can be adopted to improve health literacy.
00:26:47
Speaker
True.
Enhancing Health Literacy and Cultural Sensitivity
00:26:48
Speaker
That is true.
00:26:49
Speaker
What did I say false?
00:26:51
Speaker
I should have just said false to complicate things, but go ahead.
00:26:55
Speaker
I might have hung up on you if you said false.
00:26:58
Speaker
That's all right.
00:26:59
Speaker
I had to take the show out by myself.
00:27:00
Speaker
It's as easy as it can get, girl.
00:27:02
Speaker
So, all right.
00:27:03
Speaker
So yes, we can improve it, which a lot of those strategies really focus on clear communication, right?
00:27:09
Speaker
So making sure that, like we said, there's many ways that people learn, right?
00:27:16
Speaker
So you can do pamphlets.
00:27:17
Speaker
You can make sure that the information is kind of in words or terms that the majority of people would understand.
00:27:25
Speaker
You can actually like
00:27:26
Speaker
pressure test things, you know, before you put it out there.
00:27:28
Speaker
So you can kind of give it to a subset of maybe you're in a practice and you have patients and you're getting some material ready for patients.
00:27:36
Speaker
You could pick a couple of your patients and say, Hey, read this and give me your thoughts on that.
00:27:40
Speaker
Right.
00:27:40
Speaker
Like, and see how it, how it lands with them and do they understand how
00:27:45
Speaker
And doing that clear communication really, as you mentioned, builds that trust with your patients and your audience so that they're more likely to follow recommendations as well.
00:27:54
Speaker
So it really, really that clear communication kind of streams, lands all that processes and the translation processes.
00:28:00
Speaker
You can also do.
00:28:02
Speaker
educational programs, you know, for your patients, like if you're in, or you can do community engagement, right?
00:28:07
Speaker
Like, so, um, involving the community and kind of like health promotion activities, doing health fairs, um, you know, at my church, we actually, um, would hang up and they called it, um,
00:28:20
Speaker
pee and ponder actually is what they called it.
00:28:22
Speaker
And you, it would hang up in the bathroom stalls and we would, there was a few of us that were healthcare providers and we would pick topics that were like relevant to that time of the year.
00:28:29
Speaker
So in the fall, it was about ticks and things like that.
00:28:31
Speaker
And we would hang up little flyers in the bathroom, uh, in the stall and you can actually see it while you're in the bathroom, going to the bathroom.
00:28:39
Speaker
Um, but cause you're sitting there, uh, and it was in terms that everybody could understand so they could feel informed about different topics.
00:28:45
Speaker
So.
00:28:46
Speaker
I always thought it would be a good idea to put, you know how they always say, do your breast exam, like your self breast exam while you're in the shower.
00:28:54
Speaker
I just always think it'd be a great idea, like in hotels or maybe not like, oh yeah, I think any hotel or anywhere where somebody is using, maybe not a public shower, but yeah.
00:29:07
Speaker
a shower that's maybe not their home shower, gyms, things like that, like to put that little reminder, like when women are in the shower, like meet them where they are.
00:29:16
Speaker
That's like the best place to do a breast exam is in the shower.
00:29:21
Speaker
So yeah, I thought that was interesting.
00:29:22
Speaker
And I also, to build on your point though, I also think that we put a lot of onus on patients to be responsible.
00:29:31
Speaker
Yeah.
00:29:32
Speaker
for their health literacy.
00:29:33
Speaker
And a couple of things you pointed out earlier in our discussion was one, it's a team effort.
00:29:38
Speaker
There's all these, the organizational, you mentioned that our providers, sometimes we just need to simplify.
00:29:45
Speaker
Yeah.
00:29:46
Speaker
And then organizations need to design better materials, right?
00:29:50
Speaker
And then patients need to feel safe asking questions.
00:29:53
Speaker
I think it's a shared responsibility, you know?
00:29:56
Speaker
And yeah,
00:29:59
Speaker
If we all do it, we can all improve the outcomes, but it can't just be on the patient at all.
00:30:05
Speaker
Right.
00:30:06
Speaker
No, no, I agree.
00:30:07
Speaker
And as a provider too, like we have to give them the space to ask those questions, you know, like we always used to, you know, get it, observe each other in patient rooms and things like that.
00:30:17
Speaker
And, you know, part of it was that you had to sit down with a patient, which is just so important because it just, you know,
00:30:22
Speaker
Makes them feel like you're there just listening to them and there to answer their questions, right?
00:30:26
Speaker
Rather than kind of running out of the room, you know, or standing in the doorway.
00:30:30
Speaker
So, yep.
00:30:31
Speaker
I agree with you.
00:30:32
Speaker
And I think I'm going to forego my last question just because there's one more part I want to add and I don't want to take us too long.
00:30:38
Speaker
But I think you're right.
00:30:39
Speaker
There's something that we do in sound like our patient experience.
00:30:43
Speaker
And for those of that that are not sound or external to sound, at some of our hospitals, we will monitor the patient experience.
00:30:53
Speaker
our team members as they have visits with patients, make sure that they're sitting down, make sure that they're, you know, giving good eye contact.
00:31:00
Speaker
If they're welcome to sit down, not all patients want you to sit down.
00:31:03
Speaker
So that's always something we ask, but that we're actually sitting down and spending that time.
00:31:08
Speaker
We've got a million things and sometimes a ton of patients on our census to see.
00:31:12
Speaker
And, and it'd be,
00:31:13
Speaker
it's a way for sound to remind us as providers to remain patient forward and patient centered.
00:31:20
Speaker
And I think that's a really wonderful thing that we do here.
00:31:25
Speaker
And I'm sure we're not the only organization that does that, but how much you can negate in confusion by just sitting down and spending some time.
00:31:33
Speaker
I think it's important.
00:31:34
Speaker
And also what my question was gonna be, but I wanted to just piggyback was a little bit about cultural beliefs.
00:31:40
Speaker
And you talked about that earlier.
00:31:43
Speaker
Sometimes cultural beliefs, we interpret that as people that don't, that aren't smart or make poor health decisions, but culture is
00:31:53
Speaker
shapes how people view illness.
00:31:56
Speaker
So when you have it like Jehovah, when this doesn't want blood transfusion, or it's also understanding culturally what they believe in.
00:32:03
Speaker
And we're quick, I believe to label non-compliance when, when a patient doesn't do what we believe, but we've gotta be very, very cognizant to
00:32:16
Speaker
and focused on the fact that this is cultural respect.
00:32:22
Speaker
This may be faith tradition.
00:32:23
Speaker
This could be, they have differing expectations of our care.
00:32:28
Speaker
I think recognizing some of those barriers and when somebody is pushing back, that's another one of those like, hey, how do you manage that?
00:32:35
Speaker
Well, you figure out what their fear is or what's their faith or what's their common ground.
00:32:42
Speaker
If it's cultural, it doesn't mean they're dumb.
00:32:45
Speaker
It doesn't mean that they're non-compliant.
00:32:48
Speaker
I almost kind of hate that word, honestly.
00:32:51
Speaker
It's rare to find a patient who truly doesn't do what they're supposed to do just because they just don't want to do it.
00:33:00
Speaker
It's tied to something almost always.
00:33:04
Speaker
And I think they just get a bad name and then they get treated poorly.
00:33:09
Speaker
I agree.
00:33:10
Speaker
I think it's so important to understand that and meet them where they are.
00:33:12
Speaker
And,
Improving Communication with Patients
00:33:13
Speaker
you know, I think our role as providers in those instances, especially those cultural instances, I mean, you know, you mentioned the Jehovah witness that doesn't want blood transfusions.
00:33:21
Speaker
I mean, I would always just say to them, like, I understand, you know, where you're coming from.
00:33:25
Speaker
And I just want you to understand the risks of not, you know, doing a blood transfusion, for example.
00:33:31
Speaker
And then, you know, we have to respect their decision because ultimately it's their decision.
00:33:35
Speaker
their health and their health care.
00:33:36
Speaker
And as long as they're making an informed decision, you know, we'd have to respect that.
00:33:41
Speaker
So absolutely.
00:33:42
Speaker
And there's a lot of different cultural things, even around the food that we order, the diets that we don't think about, you know, that patients are getting or sometimes micromanaging the food that does come in.
00:33:54
Speaker
I think it just trying to be a bit more holistic about our approach to it is really important.
00:33:59
Speaker
So the one thing I would challenge all of us as we go into our week into next week, seeing patients for us providers is like, what's one thing that we can eat?
00:34:08
Speaker
What's one thing we
Call to Action for Health Literacy
00:34:09
Speaker
can do to make healthcare easier for everyone to understand?
00:34:13
Speaker
And if you're a provider, what's one thing we can do for our patients?
00:34:16
Speaker
If you're a patient listening,
00:34:17
Speaker
What is one thing you can do to help your provider that could be asking questions and not being fearful to do that?
00:34:25
Speaker
And as an organization, what's one thing an organization can do to improve?
00:34:29
Speaker
Yeah.
00:34:30
Speaker
you know, so, all right, well, this was a good one.
00:34:33
Speaker
And we talked longer than we expected to, but I'm long-winded here, but this is an important topic.
00:34:38
Speaker
And I think we touch on this in a lot of our other topics, but this was important.
00:34:41
Speaker
But if you guys have a topic or are interested in sharing your feedback or your thoughts, please, please, please reach out to us.
00:34:47
Speaker
We're on social media at Instagram at On Call with April and Alicia.
00:34:51
Speaker
We are on LinkedIn as well.
00:34:52
Speaker
Same tag name, On Call with April and Alicia.
00:34:55
Speaker
And if you're from the archaic days and want to email, which nobody has, that would be,
00:35:01
Speaker
on call podcast at sound physicians.com and be the first.
00:35:05
Speaker
I don't know.
00:35:06
Speaker
You might get a bonus prize.
00:35:07
Speaker
Just send us something.
00:35:08
Speaker
Jeez.
00:35:09
Speaker
But we'd love to, we'd love to hear and interact.
00:35:12
Speaker
We love the feedback that we're already getting.
00:35:13
Speaker
And thank you for all of our internal sound listeners and the feedback we're getting in those from external.
00:35:18
Speaker
We appreciate it.
00:35:19
Speaker
We hear it.
00:35:19
Speaker
We love it.
00:35:20
Speaker
Thank you so much.
00:35:21
Speaker
So absolutely.
00:35:22
Speaker
Thank you everyone.
00:35:23
Speaker
And until next time you stay well and we'll stay on call.
00:35:26
Speaker
Have a great week guys.
00:35:27
Speaker
Bye everyone.