LibGuides: Communicating With Patients: Home

Medspeak

The Medical Library Association defines "Medspeak" as the specialized language of health professionals. When communicating with patients, it is beneficial to replace medical jargon with plain language alternatives.

Plain language:

communication your audience can understand the first time they read or hear it.
gets your message across in the shortest time possible.
helps more people understand instructions and follow them correctly.
writing that is clear, concise, well-organized, and follows other best practices appropriate to the subject or field and intended audience.

plainlanguage.gov

Patient Communication Strategies

National Institutes of Health's (NIH) Clear & Simple
Designed to assist health communicators in developing audience-appropriate information and communicating effectively with people with limited health literacy skills.
Strategies To Improve Communication Between Pharmacy Staff and Patients
AHRQ's training program designed to introduce pharmacists to the problem of low health literacy, with techniques that pharmacy staff members can use to improve communication with patients who may have limited health literacy skills.
Toolkit for Making Written Material Clear and Effective
This 11-part Toolkit from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) provides a detailed and comprehensive set of tools to help make written material easier for people to read, understand, and use.
Practice innovation strategies: Patient-centered care
This collection of AMA STEPS Forward® Practice Innovation Strategies offers proven approaches on how to improve communications with patients, and collaborate with colleagues in other specialties.

Ask Me 3®
A patient education program designed to promote communication between health
care providers and patients in order to improve health outcomes.
6 simple ways to master patient communication
RESPECT is an acronym designed to help students remember six steps to improve communication skills with patients.
AHRQ Health Literacy Universal Precautions Toolkit
Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality's (AHRQ) toolkit can help practitioners increase patient comprehension at all health literacy levels. This assessment was designed to be used in outpatient pharmacies of large, urban, public hospitals, and can be adapted for use in other pharmacy and non-pharmacy environments.
Medspeak can shut down effective communication with patients
COMMUNITY PHARMACY Improving Communication Skills of Pharmacy Students Through Effective Precepting

The Teach-Back Method is a research-based communication technique to check whether patients understand their medication instructions or diagnosis by asking them to repeat information back in their own words. Example: “I want to make sure that I did a good job explaining this, please tell me what you need to do when you get home”

Teach-Back
Quick tips from AHRQ
Teach-Back for Quality Education And Patient Safety

Communicating With Patients: Home

Medspeak

Patient Communication Strategies

Patient Communication Videos