The Nursing clinics of North America
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Nurs. Clin. North Am. · Sep 2011
Educating the patient: challenges and opportunities with current technology.
Patients using the Internet are inundated with abundant information on health care that may be correct and may be incorrect. It is becoming the role of clinicians to enable patients to educate themselves by providing information about accurate and reliable Web sites, and to answer questions from literature that patients encounter. In addition, there is a myriad of technological advances to help patients and clinicians access, retrieve, and file information, and numerous communication tools to foster the patient-clinician dialog. This article provides an overview and some recommendations for clinicians to help patients better use information to achieve better outcomes.
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It is imperative that nursing responds to the call of creating a health literate society by taking an active role in health literacy research, education, and promotion. Nurses have a professional and ethical obligation to communicate in a clear, purposeful way that addresses the unique information needs of each patient. ⋯ This article explores the concept of health literacy and its relationship to patient education and communication. Practical strategies that the nurse can use to assess, communicate with, and evaluate comprehension in patients with low literacy skills are provided.