Bridging the Gap in Surgical Patient Education: A Visual-Based Approach

Abstract

Patient education is an essential aspect of surgical practice, as it improves patient compliance, trust in providers, and health outcomes (Paterick, 2017). Barriers to education, such as language and health literacy, are a challenge to this process (Behmer Hansen, 2020). The Census Bureau’s 2018 American Community Survey found that 38% of English-second-language (ESL) Americans speak English “less than very well” (McHugh, 2019). Despite this, most patient education material is only guaranteed in the English language, and is written at a reading level much higher than the national average (Behmer Hansen, 2020). Beyond issues of informed consent and procedure comprehension, faulty engagement with healthcare providers is a source of great risk to patient health (Sharma, 2018). Failure to meet the low health literacy requirements of a patient population occurs regardless of surgical specialty. Neurosurgical patient education materials have been labeled as difficult to understand, creating a significant barrier in maintaining patient engagement (Ramos, 2019). Orthopedic and hand surgery education materials have also been found to be at unrealistically high reading levels (Hadden 2016, Prince 2019).