Leading a Plain Language Program

Health literacy and libraries: a literature review

“…Partnerships with community groups should not be overlooked when creating health literacy efforts. Many successful collaborative programs were facilitated by NLM grants that encouraged partnerships between libraries and community organizations (Allen et al, 2004;Aspinall et al, 2012;Crampton et al, 2010;Haynes, 2004;Jacobson, 2008;Kouame and Young, 2014;Malachowski, 2011;Marhenke and Howrey, 2014;Paul and Schneider, 2006;Radick, 2015;Strong et al, 2012;Wu et al, 2006). Librarians should consider forming similar partnerships when designing health literacy efforts.…”

“…Health literacy programs in medical libraries have also highlighted the need to refer patients to librarians for further information and used displays to reach medical students (Shipman et al, 2009, Wickline & Rosenthal, 2010. (Paul & Schneider, 2006). This program consisted of librarian-led workshops for hospital staff that used examples of current hospital documents to illustrate the need for plain language and demonstrate strategies for writing and evaluation (Paul & Schneider, 2006).…”

“…A notable health literacy initiative is the Plain Language Program at Massachusetts General Hospital (Paul and Schneider, 2006). This program consisted of librarian-led workshops for hospital staff that used examples of current hospital documents to illustrate the need for plain language and demonstrate strategies for writing and evaluation (Paul and Schneider, 2006).…”

“…A notable health literacy initiative is the Plain Language Program at Massachusetts General Hospital (Paul and Schneider, 2006). This program consisted of librarian-led workshops for hospital staff that used examples of current hospital documents to illustrate the need for plain language and demonstrate strategies for writing and evaluation (Paul and Schneider, 2006). These workshops led to collaborations with researchers, nurses and interpreters that resulted in plain language usage in hospital informed consent forms and patient education materials (Paul and Schneider, 2006).…”

“…This program consisted of librarian-led workshops for hospital staff that used examples of current hospital documents to illustrate the need for plain language and demonstrate strategies for writing and evaluation (Paul and Schneider, 2006). These workshops led to collaborations with researchers, nurses and interpreters that resulted in plain language usage in hospital informed consent forms and patient education materials (Paul and Schneider, 2006). In another instance of library and researcher collaboration, librarians at the University of Maryland offered workshops for researchers about patient literacy and informed consent (Raimondo et al, 2014).…”