The Patient Experience

A Best-Seller on Amazon! Health Literacy From A to Z, Second Edition is included in the 2015 edition of the essential collection of Doody's Core Titles. Doody's Review Service, 5 Stars, Score 100! AWARDS for The Second Edition: Two-time winner of New England Chapter of the American Medical Writers Association awards: 2012 Will Solimene Award for Excellence in Medical Communication 2012 Neil Duane Award of Distinction 2012 Medical Book Awards: Honorable Mention in the Non-Physicians category Clear communication of your health message can make all the difference in effective patient care. Health Literacy from A to Z: Practical Ways to Communicate Your Health Message, Second Edition is an easy to use handbook designed for the busy health professional. Filled with ideas and strategies that can be used in everyday practice, Health Literacy from A to Z is a first-of-its-kind resource. Learn the key principles and strategies of effective health communication presented in a simple, informal manner by one of the nation's leading experts in health literacy. Whether you are a physician, nurse, pharmacist, allied health professional, case manager, public health specialist, practice manager, health care educator, student or family caregiver this book is for you. Instructor Resources include a Sample Syllabus and PowerPoint Presentations. What's New in the Second Edition of Health Literacy from A to Z The Second Edition is updated and revised to reflect current health literacy research and practice with new information about timely health literacy topics. This edition has 14 new chapters including 4 chapters about "Technology" and 7 chapters focused on "Know Your Audience." Highlights * "Starting Points" with an introduction to key information. * "Strategies, Ideas, and Suggestions" with lots of practical, how-to tips. * "Stories from Practice" showcasing real-life experiences from a wide range of perspectives to help make key points come alive. * "Sources to Learn More" including an extensive list of books, articles, websites, podcasts, and other resources. New Topics * Business Side of Health Literacy * Communicating When Patients Feel Scared, Sick, and Overwhelmed * General Public: Talking with Patients about What They Learn from the Media * Organizational Efforts, Advocacy, and Collaborations * Regulatory and Legal Language * Website Writing * Blogs and Social Media * Audio Podcasts * Email and Text Messages * Interactive Multimedia * Sections focusing on, "Know Your Audience" with in-depth information about: Children and Youth Emotions and Cognition Hearing Loss Language and Culture Literacy Older Adults Vision Problems The First Edition was the 2006 Winner of the New England Chapter of the American Medical Writers Association, Will Solimene Award for Excellence in Medical Communication!

Suitable for health professionals concerned about communicating more effectively with patients as well as their families and colleagues, this book demonstrates the power of our words to improve the readers' skills in minimising harmful effects and maximising beneficial effects of communication with people in medical settings.

The ability to communicate well is crucial for a doctor's effectiveness in clinical work. From the patient's perspective, effective interpersonal communication is regarded as the hallmark of an excellent physician. Learning to communicate well can be a difficult challenge for medical students. The skills involved rest on a framework of knowledge which is often not presented in a succinct and coherent form in the medical curriculum. This revised work provides an accessible, practical introduction to the skills of talking with and listening to patients. The book analyzes the interchange of information, and focuses on the affective dimensions of the medical interview - the feelings of the patient, and of the doctor. The factors which can inhibit or facilitate communication are discussed in detail. The contributed chapters broaden the scope of the book to include communication with particular categories of patients such as the child, the adolescent, the elderly, and the dying. Communication with patients from other cultures is also reviewed. In this new edition, chapters have been added on talking to relatives, discussing pregnancy and reproduction, and making decisions.

An essential tool to help improve communication between pediatrician and patient or family, Plain Language Pediatrics offers a framework for implementing a plain language approach to communication in your office, and provides specific steps you can take to ensure the information you present to patients and their parents is clearly understood. Included are 25 reproducible plain language patient education handouts—in English and Spanish! Plain Language Pediatrics combines health literacy and plain language principles to present information in a way that makes it as easy as possible for everyone to understand, and applies these principles to a variety of ambulatory acute, chronic, and preventive conditions. Common pediatric topics such as asthma, ADHD, ear infections, and medical dosing are addressed in detail. This robust resource is divided into 2 parts. Part I explores limited health literacy, including the scope of the problem, how it affects children in particular, and how health care providers can address and overcome health literacy issues with patients and their caregivers. At the heart of Part II is a new series of 25 reproducible patient education handouts in English and Spanish that feature need-to-know information up front, health care terms and jargon, practical pronunciation guides, low reading levels, user-friendly layouts, and simple, purposeful illustrations.

Highly Commended (Basis of Medicine category), BMA Awards 2005. A highly practical account of communication for medical students, backed up with numerous case histories. In addition to the clinical interview the book covers other aspects of communication including how to promote healthy behaviour and the need for the doctor to work as part of the health care team. New chapter which will deal with communication issues around admitting mistakes, dealing with complaints and litigation. Existing chapters reviewed and updated, bringing in some new material which will include: A brief review of recent evidence on the effectiveness of good communication and communication skills training (Chapter 1). Some more about 'patient centred consultations' (Chapter 2). Recent legislation concerning access to notes (chapter 3). Communicating with the "informed patient" and explaining risk (Chapter 4). More about working in teams (Chapter 11)). Written communication and making presentations).

Virtually all physicians know that effective communication reduces malpractice risk. What may be less apparent is how it can also contribute to the practice of good medicine, even in the managed care setting. In this volume, health-care journalist Chris Hinz draws on research and real-life case examples to teach physicians and others involved in direct contact with patients valuable interpersonal communication skills and techniques. Hinz demonstrates, through slice-of-life vignettes and sample dialogue, how a physician's deeper understanding of patients - especially in more difficult situations - can help patients to understand the physician more completely.

`There has been a pressing need for a book like this for some time. Gwyn cogently reviews the literature on discourse analysis as it pertains to medical and health matters. Introducing original research from his own studies allows him to vividly illustrate just how important it is to understand the role played by discourse. Students of health communication and the sociology of health and illness will find this book integral to their studies' - Deborah Lupton In this book, Richard Gwyn demonstrates the centrality of discourse analysis to an understanding of health and communication. Focusing on language and communication issues he demonstrates that it is possible to observe and analyze patterns in the ways in which health and illness are represented and articulated by both health professionals and lay people. Communicating Health and Illness: Explores culturally validated notions of health and sickness and the medicalization of illness. Surveys media representations of health and illness Considers the metaphoric nature of talk about illness Contributes to the ongoing debate in relation to narrative based medicine.

Medical visits are often less effective and satisfying than they would be if doctors and patients better understood the communication processes appropriate to their mutual purposes. The verbal and non-verbal exchanges that take place between doctor and patient affect the latter's motivation in pursuing advice and can result in a range of positive or negative psychological reactions including comfort, alarm, depression or resolve. Talk is broadly interpreted and is shown, on the basis of extensive research evidence, to have far-reaching results.

What is a difficult conversation? Asking for a raise. Ending a relationship. Saying "no" to your boss or spouse. Confronting disrespectful behavior. Apologizing. Conversations we dread, and often handle clumsily as a result, are part of all our lives: in boardrooms and family rooms, across the negotiation table and the dinner table. Now, Difficult Conversations teaches us how to handle these dialogues with more success and less anxiety. How does it work? Based on fifteen years of research and consultations with thousands of people, Difficult Conversations pinpoints what works. The authors discovered that regardless of context, the same small but crucial errors are what trip us up--and a few key adjustments can make all the difference. * The role of emotions--ours and theirs * The impact of what is said and what is not said * Why admitting our mistakes will put us in a stronger position * The truth behind the myth that women are better at expressing their emotions than men * How to respond productively in the face of personal attacks Who is this for? Filled with examples from everyday life, Difficult Conversations is certain to be an instant and lasting classic for families, neighbors, bosses, employees, customers, tenants, landlords, psychologists, teachers, and more. Who are the authors? Douglas Stone, Bruce Patton, and Sheila Heen teach at Harvard Law School and at the Harvard Negotiation Project. They have consulted to countless businesspeople, governments, organizations, and communities including all parties to the negotiations on constitutional transition in South Africa; school teachers in Medellin, Colombia; and community leaders and the police department in Springfield, Massachusetts. They lecture throughout the world and have written on negotiation, conflict resolution, and communication. Bruce Patton is co-author of Getting to Yes.

In all branches of medicine, effective communication between health care professionals and patients, families and carers is essential to ensure first-class treatment. Increasingly public awareness of health issues and the ready availability of health information have lead the public to be more widely informed about common conditions and the treatments available. Patients therefore attend a medical consultation better informed so the need for improved communication skills is even greater. Skill in communication is a matter of personal ability which varies widely between individuals in the medical profession as in any other. In response, the aim of this book is to dispel the anxieties which contribute to poor communication. This book covers ethical and legal issues, planning difficult conversations, the patient's and doctor's perspectives, issues surrounding special groups such as children and the elderly, and conversations with patients from different cultural backgrounds. Outlines of possible clinical cases posing specific problems are included with guidance on how to handle them.