Toolkit Development for Plain-Language Communication in Team-Based Care

Area of Science:

• Health professions education
• Health literacy
• Patient communication

Background:

• Health literacy is crucial for improving patient outcomes.
• Healthcare providers require training in health literacy and plain language.
• Health literacy is recognized as a social determinant of health.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and pilot an interprofessional training program.
• To enhance clinical students' knowledge and use of plain language communication.
• To improve health literacy understanding and application in a pediatric ambulatory clinic.

Main Methods:

• An interprofessional faculty developed training on plain language and health literacy.
• Clinical students (pharmacy, medicine, nursing, social work, physical therapy, dentistry) participated in asynchronous orientation, live sessions, and patient visits.
• Pre- and post-surveys assessed knowledge and attitudes; unclarified jargon terms were collected during patient visits. Data analyzed using descriptive statistics, paired t-tests, and McNemar's test.

Main Results:

• Composite knowledge scores regarding health literacy significantly increased (p < .001).
• 93.3% of students recognized the course's contribution to professional development; 81.6% found live content effective.
• The average number of unclarified jargon terms per patient visit decreased from 2.8 to 2.4 between weeks 1 and 2.

Conclusions:

• The pilot training program effectively improved health literacy knowledge and plain language communication skills among diverse clinical students.
• The intervention demonstrated a reduction in unclarified jargon during patient encounters.
• This model can be replicated in other clinical settings to promote early exposure to health literacy concepts and enhance learner competence.