Health Literacy and Communication for Health Professionals
Results: Evaluating our efforts 5.1
It is important to realize that conveying health messages clearly, in plain language, is not only
required by some professions Code of Ethics, but it is also a safety issue and has legal implications
as well. Therefore it is important to incorporate ways to check for understanding and assess our
communication efforts early and often!
Remember that we should always be focused on measuring how well we are communicating in order
to help people understand our message. One way to be more aware that there may be a low literacy
situation is to recognize some of the signs that have been documented.
Some clues that a person is not a good reader might be&
·ð Their intake forms are incomplete
·ð They frequently miss appointments
·ð They may not be giving or taking medicines correctly
·ð They are unable to give a coherent, sequential history
·ð They ask very few questions
·ð They hand materials directly over to a family member
·ð They try avoiding reading tasks. An example might be them saying,  I forgot my glasses
today
·ð They don't always remember what they have read
·ð They stop reading as soon as they find a plausible answer to their question
·ð They take information literally
·ð They often look to things other than print information to answer a question. An example would
be checking the pill for its appearance instead of reading the label.