Training

Training: Front and back office personnel of healthcare providers

Health Literacy San Diego has planned for the development of a training program that will result in personnel and practitioners of healthcare agencies learning more about serving patients whose quality of care and health outcomes might be affected by communication challenges related to language differences, literacy abilities, and cultural differences.

Project personnel will develop appropriate methods, tools, and policies to help medical organizations train their front and back office staff to better understand and deal more effectively with low literacy and low health literate adults.

The three target populations of patients include: English as a second language (ESL) populations; low literate adults, and; seniors (typically people 65 and older).

Here are project objectives as they relate to training:

  1. Develop and customize model policies for organizations to use to promote health literacy as one of their cultural competencies

  2. Provide technical assistance and training to healthcare professionals to learn effective methods for working with persons who possess low level literacy skills

  3. Create trainings that include methods to help healthcare personnel and practitioners (e.g. dentists, dieticians, front office staff, physicians, nurses, pharmacists, etc.) identify patients with low health literacy.

  4. Include training components that will teach healthcare personnel and practitioners strategies to use with patients with low health literacy, to enhance communication.

If you are interested in learning more or would like to be included in our outreach distribution list, please click here.  In the mean time the U.S. Department of Health and Human Service's Health Resource and Services Administration (HRSA) provides a free online training addressing health literacy, cultural competency and limited English proficiency, we encourage you to learn more about it: www.hrsa.gov/healthliteracy/training.htm

Additionally, the following videos will be useful for those looking for training tools:

American Medical Association's (AMA) Health Literacy Video: The 20 minute video, also included in the AMA's Health Literacy Introductory Kit, can be viewed in its entirety at this link. It is designed to raise awareness and spark discussion about patients' low health literacy skills. http://www.ama-assn.org/ama/no-index/about-ama/8035.shtml
In Plain Language - Rima Rudd, In Plain Language was produced by Dr. Rima Rudd and Dr. William De Jong, with a team of health literacy studies professionals and researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health's Health Literacy Studies Program. This 15 minute video/DVD was developed for medical and public health professionals who are interested in learning about adult literacy in the U.S. and implications for medicine and public health. http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/healthliteracy/overview.html#TWO