Health Literacy: It's Time To Take It Seriously

Health Literacy:  It's Time to Take It Seriously!

Have you ever thought that the explanations you gave to patients and families were understood, only to find out later that they misunderstood what you said, and an error was made? See what one patient experienced when she tried to hide her shame about her inability to read well.

“At the age of 30 or 31 I went into the gynecologist and complained that part of this was not working properly. And he said we can repair that. Great! I didn’t ask all the right questions. When I showed up two weeks later at the admissions office at the hospital, they put enough papers in front of me; I bet there were 5 papers that I needed to sign.  I wasn’t going to say excuse me, but I don’t read very well and I certainly don’t read fast, and I’m concerned with some of these words. To me it was lines and circles over sheets, and sheets, and sheets, and I wasn’t going to reveal my sense of stupidity. So I signed where they told me to sign. Never read it. And a couple of weeks later in the office follow-up visit, the nurse said, “how do you feel since your hysterectomy?”  Now I acted as normal as I could. Inside my mouth fell open and I thought to myself, “how could I be so stupid as to allow somebody take part of my body and I didn’t know it.”

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