During my time as a hospital librarian, we offered sessions to the hospital staff (including physicians) about health literacy that emphasized the need to speak in plain language to their patients and families.<\/p>\n
For many of us, it feels like the medical world speaks a language all its own. I often heard people complaining, \u201cWhy can\u2019t they just say it so I can understand?!\u201d I too, have experienced this as a patient and when helping my parents and children.<\/p>\n
When visiting the hospital or clinic, people are already experiencing frustration and anxiety because they may be:<\/p>\n
This got me thinking, how often do libraries use unfamiliar language and assume our patrons should know how things work? Just as in a healthcare setting, our library visitors may be stressed and frustrated.\u00a0 We too can use plain language. This can be in how we:<\/p>\n
How can you learn to use plain language? Below are just a few of the many resources available online:<\/p>\n
PlainLanguage.gov<\/a> Plain Language Writing Tips<\/a> MedlinePlus Health Literacy topic webpage<\/a> Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) Plain Language<\/a> Don’t try to do everything each of these websites suggest. Try 1 or 2 tips at a time and once you feel comfortable, you can add another tip or two. With practice, it won’t seem like such a chore but will feel a natural part of your job. Your library visitors will appreciate your efforts as they’ll feel more welcomed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" During my time as a hospital librarian, we offered sessions to the hospital staff (including physicians) about health literacy that emphasized the need to speak in plain language to their patients and families. For many of us, it feels like the medical world speaks a language all its own. I often heard people complaining, \u201cWhy… Read More »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[316,457,9],"tags":[326,119,254,234,388],"class_list":["post-20551","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-consumer-health","category-consumer-health-minute","category-health-literacy","tag-communication","tag-consumer-health","tag-health-information","tag-libraries","tag-plain-language"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.nnlm.gov\/region_5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20551","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.nnlm.gov\/region_5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.nnlm.gov\/region_5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.nnlm.gov\/region_5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.nnlm.gov\/region_5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20551"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/news.nnlm.gov\/region_5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20551\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20589,"href":"https:\/\/news.nnlm.gov\/region_5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20551\/revisions\/20589"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.nnlm.gov\/region_5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20551"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.nnlm.gov\/region_5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20551"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.nnlm.gov\/region_5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20551"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nThe website includes resources, examples, and more to help guide you.<\/p>\n
\nDigital.gov has a downloadable plain language checklist.<\/p>\n
\nThis MedlinePlus health topic webpage includes links to resources about plain language.<\/p>\n
\nThough the information is somewhat specific to AHRQ it does provide some clear tips that are helpful to everyone.<\/p>\n