I attended an excellent overview session on health literacy and reference this morning entitled “HELP! My Patron is a Cyber Patient: Learn to Help Patrons Identify Their Health Information Needs and Locate Relevant Resources”, presented by LaVentra E. Danqua of Wayne State University, Shiffman Medical Library in Detroit, Michigan. She’s worked as a health reference librarian for more than fourteen years and shared her tips and resources for helping customers.
More than half of American adults (90 million people) are considered to have low health literacy. Combined with the facts that medical information isn’t written for a lay person, that we’re being increasingly tasked with monitoring our own health and often those of our loved ones, and availability of prescription drugs has increased, navigating consumer health information can be overwhelming. Particularly for those who aren’t native English speakers, accessing, evaluating, and understanding health information can be a challenge. Also, health information is filled with jargon, and patients are often intimidated by doctors, which is often similar to customers’ experience with libraries: as such, librarians should follow these tips when answering health questions:
- Be approachable – be alert, stand, greet patrons.
- Listen – Allow patrons to fully state their needs; ask “What do you need?”
- Searching – Show materials as you find it. “Do you have time now? If not, let’s schedule an appointment.” Set them at ease: “This is new for me, too. Let’s learn this new topic together.”
- Follow up – Check in with the patron. “Was this enough information?”
Most importantly, stress that you’re there to help.
Also, for any health question, she suggests starting with Medline Plus (http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/).
She’ll also make her slides available online, so I’ll post the link when she sends it to me.
