Addressing Patients' Health Literacy Needs Doody's Expert Review Review Questionnaire ISBN: 9781599402802 ISBN-10: 1599402807 Copyright: 2009 Edition: 1st Author: Joint Commission Resources, Doody's Expert Review    Score: 92 Doody's Star Rating™ and Doody's Expert Review provide by Doody Enterprises, Inc. Reviewer: Linda Shanta,  PhD, MSN, BS  (Walden University) Description This book provides the essentials necessary to improve patients' health literacy to help ensure effective and safe patient care. The premise is well supported by research and offers feasible solutions to enhance patient understanding of complex healthcare information. The book effectively uses tables and sample documents. Purpose The purpose is to establish the crucial nature of the problem of healthcare illiteracy. The book also identifies patient cues related to a lack of understanding, and provides practical solutions for healthcare professionals to meet the challenges presented by the lack of health literacy. It meets its objectives by providing comprehensive information and resources. Audience The purpose is to establish the crucial nature of the problem of healthcare illiteracy. The book also identifies patient cues related to a lack of understanding, and provides practical solutions for healthcare professionals to meet the challenges presented by the lack of health literacy. It meets its objectives by providing comprehensive information and resources. Features The first chapter effectively presents research that is foundational to illustrate the vastness of the problems related to deficient health literacy in the United States. The next chapter provides assessment methods and findings that will help healthcare providers identify patients who do not understand crucial instructions to regain or maintain health. An important section in this chapter dispels myths related to healthcare illiteracy. The third chapter presents ideas and resources for evaluating current health information materials, as well as for planning future educational material with the goal of empowering patients and families. The final chapter offers lessons that have been learned by a variety of organizations in their attempts to meet the challenge of improving healthcare literacy. As an added value, a CD included with the book contains comprehensive information necessary for organizational planning to commit to a healthcare literacy initiative. Assessment This is an invaluable book for informing and motivating healthcare professionals to tackle this problem through evidence-based solutions. The variety of resources offered by the book and CD provide well-organized information that should be mandatory in the initial education all students in healthcare professions. This approach also should be adopted by healthcare organizations and professionals currently in practice. Review Questionnaire Range Question Score 1-10 Are the author's objectives met? 10 1-10 Rate the worthiness of those objectives. 10 1-5 Is this written at an appropriate level? 5 1-5 Is there significant duplication? (1=significant, 5=insignificant) 4 1-5 Are there significant omissions? (1=significant, 5=insignificant) 3 1-5 Rate the authority of the authors. 5 1-5 Are there sufficient illustrations? 5 1-5 Rate the pedagogic value of the illustrations. 3 1-5 Rate the print quality of the illustrations. 3 1-5 Are there sufficient references? 5 1-5 Rate the currency of the references. 5 1-5 Rate the pertinence of the references. 5 1-5 Rate the helpfulness of the index. 5 1-5 If important in this specialty, rate the physical appearance of the book 5 1-10 Is this a worthwhile contribution to the field? 10 1-10 If this is a 2nd or later edition, is this new edition needed? N/A ©2024 Doody Enterprises, Inc.