Patient Awareness Under Anesthesia Handout

The American Society of Anesthesiologists has a plethora of patient education handouts, in English with some in Spanish at their patient education website.

One of these handouts, created by the ASA and the American Association of Nurse Anesthetists, is Patient Awareness Under Anesthesia - What Is It?

"The brochure explains what awareness under general anesthesia is and isn¹t, and why it can happen. It discusses what researchers and health care providers are doing to lessen the chance of this rare event and offers guidance to patients for discussing concerns about awareness with their anesthesia professional."

This brochures is available in .pdf format and is also available in Spanish.

New National Sudden Infant Death Resource Center

The National Center for Education in Maternal and Child Health at Georgetown University is pleased to announce the new National Sudden Infant Death Resource Center (NSIDRC), funded by a 3-year cooperative agreement with the federal Maternal and Child Health Bureau (MCHB).

NSIDRC is co-located with the Maternal and Child Health Library and draws on the library's extensive resource capacities and public health perspective. The new NSIDRC will continue the work of the National SIDS/Infant Death Resource Center, serving as a central source of information on sudden infant death (including sudden infant death syndrome, miscarriage, stillbirth and other sudden infant deaths), on bereavement, and on promoting healthy outcomes for infants from the prenatal period through the first year of life and beyond.

The website provides access to this information in an easy-to-use format. Searchable databases and special issues of the MCH Alert with a focus on infant mortality will be available soon.

NSIDRC is also accessible by calling (866) 866-7437 (toll-free) or (202) 687-7466 (local), or by e-mailing info@sidscenter.org

How to Quit Smoking Fact Sheet in 16 Languages

The Inova Health System, along with other hospitals in the DC Metro area, has recently gone smoke-free. A related fact sheet, "How to Quit Smoking" is available from Health Information Translations, a fabulous resource sponsored by several institutions including Nationwide Children's Hospital and Ohio State University Medical Center.

"How to Quit Smoking" is available in 16 languages including Arabic, Bosnian, Chinese Simplified, Chinese Traditional, English, French, Hindi, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese Brazilian, Russian, Somali, Spanish, Tagalog, Ukrainian and Vietnamese.

The fact sheets are in .pdf format and include the foreign language and the English translation. Fact sheets are also copyright free so you may make additional copies as needed! Woohoo!

Prevention and Treatment of Pressure Sores (Spanish)

The ADVANCE for Nurse Practitioners website is featuring a patient education sheet in Spanish on preventing and treating pressure sores. The handout is available in .pdf format and is titled, "La Prevención y el Tratamiento de las Úlceras por Presióndes"

The fact sheet covers causes, risk factors, types of pressure sores, treatment, and prevention. There is no English counterpart to this document.

Caring for Cancer Caregivers

A new resource from the National Cancer Institute, "Caring for the Caregiver: Support for Cancer Caregivers," is now available for order from the Cancer Information Service. This booklet is an easy-to-read version of the existing booklet, "When Someone You Love Is Being Treated for Cancer". It provides the basics of practical and supportive information for cancer caregivers, and is written at the 4th-5th grade reading level.

"Chapters" include:
"Who is a caregiver?",
"Your feelings",
"Asking for help",
"Caring for yourself",
"Going with your loved one to medical visits", and
"Talking with others".

This document is available in html and/or .PDF format This booklet can also be ordered for free in print.

Updated Chemotherapy and Radiation Therapy Booklets Now Available

It wasn't that long ago when the National Cancer Institute was looking for reviewers to help update their chemotherapy and radiation therapy brochures. The revised editions are now available and it is estimated
that nearly half a million copies of each will be distributed to Cancer Centers and health professionals annually.

The booklets focus on the most common treatment side effects and ways to manage them. Each side effect has its own section describing what it is, why it occurs, ways to manage and ways to obtain more information. the new formats are user-friendly. Written in plain language, they feature a larger font size and contain more white space for readability. They have also been resized for easier photocopying.

These documents can be viewed in html and/or downloaded in .PDF format.

Women's Health Fact Sheets in Spanish

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration's Office of Women's Health consumer health fact sheets are now available entirely in Spanish. OWH recently released 42 new Spanish-language publications on a range of topics including depression, generic drugs, heart disease, cosmetics, arthritis, mammography, HIV, and food safety. These easy-to-read fact sheets complement OWH's other Spanish language materials on diabetes, menopause, and safe medication use.

Copies of these fact sheets can be viewed in html or downloaded in .PDF format. They can also be ordered for free in bulk quantities.

Handout on Mourning the Death of a Spouse

NIH's National Institute on Aging (NIA) has developed a new publication called "Mourning the Death of a Spouse". This brochure provides a list of resources and offers information on topics such as understanding grief, tips for facing a new life alone, and a checklist of some important financial and legal "to-do's". This "Age Page" can be downloaded from the NIA website in .PDF format or free print copies can be ordered from the NIA website or by calling toll-free 1-800-222-2225.

Celiac Disease

The National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, as part of its Celiac Disease Awareness Campaign, has two new 2007 publications available for patients and their families.

The first is "What I Need to Know About Celiac Disease". This easy-to-read, 20-page booklet, discusses the symptoms, diagnosis and treatment of celiac disease and provides some brief nutritional information related to a gluten-free diet. This brochure is available free of charge on the web and can also be downloaded in .pdf format.

The second resource is "Celiac Disease News", a summary of the latest news both in the medical literature and the popular press, related to Celiac disease. This newsletter can be accessed online in .pdf format or patients and their families can subscribe to the newsletter and receive the document by email.

Currently, these resources are available in English only.

ABA's Consumer's Tool Kit for Health Care Advance Planning

The American Bar Association's Commission on Law & Aging has a free web resource available to the public called "Consumer's Tool Kit for Health Care Advance Planning". The tool kit "contains a variety of self-help worksheets, suggestions, and resources." There are 10 tools in all and they include: How to select your health care agent or proxy; Are some conditions worse than death?; How do you weigh odds of survival; personal priorities and spiritual values important to your medical decisions; after death decisions to think about now; conversation scripts: getting past the resistance; the proxy quiz for family & physician; what to do after signing your health care advance directive; guide for health care proxies; and resources: advance planning for health care. These tools are available in .pdf format in English only.

Recipe Bookmarks Available from "The Cancer Project"

One of the goals of The Cancer Project, based in Washington DC, is to provide "comprehensive information about the role of dietary factors in keeping people healthy." The Cancer Project has announced the availability of an adorable pair of bookmarks, each containing a recipe that helps promote a diet "rich in fruits, vegetables, and whole grains, low in fat, loaded with fiber, and full of cancer-fighting antioxidants" and encourages kids to try new foods. The two recipes featured are "Man’s Best Friend,” Broccoli Poodle: Cream of Broccoli Soup Recipe" and “All Aboard the Fiber Express,” Squash School Bus: Spaghetti Squash and Mushrooms Recipe. One set of child-friendly bookmarks may be ordered free of charge from The Cancer Project.

Chemotherapy Fact Sheet Available in 11 Languages

The Inova Fairfax Hospital Life with Cancer program has developed a Chemotherapy tip sheet available in English, Spanish, French, Korean, Russian, Vietnamese, Ukrainian, Chinese, Farsi, Urdu, Arabic, and Somali.

The fact sheet provides 11 suggestions for dealing with the physical and emotional side effects of chemotherapy.

Stretch and Practice Yoga Right from Your Desk

Now here is a resource that just might prevent you from becoming a patient yourself! It is also a good resource to share with patients who may be returning to work or who could use some advice on how to sneak in some physical activity during their day. The Alberta (CA) Centre for Active Living has created two online videos called Stretch @ Your Desk and Yoga @ Your Desk. These videos are part of the Alberta Centre for Active Living in the Workplace website which contains a wealth of information and tools for remaining physically active on the job.

Available both in English and French, each stretching video takes about 10 minutes and is led by a certified fitness consultant and yoga instructor. As their website describes, "The exercises in these videos are designed to counter the effects of sitting at your desk by focusing on stretches for your back, neck and shoulders. The exercises come in stages so that you can work on different parts of your body. Most of the exercises can be done right in front of your computer monitor. No need for special clothes or equipment."

The Alberta Centre for Active Living is affiliated with the Faculty of Physical Education and Recreation at the University of Alberta.

Bone Marrow Transplantation Audiovisuals

A number of bone marrow transplantation resources available on video and DVD are available from the National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP). And the best part? Single copies of these items can be ordered for free!

NMDP publications include:

"Forward! Living Life after Transplant"
"This educational magazine and DVD helps teens and young adults know what to expect before, during and after transplant. It features five young transplant recipients who share their journey and offer advice for dealing with physical and physiological changes, as well as relationships, school and self-image post transplant."

"The Paths to Progress"
"This bilingual audio CD uses easily understood language to explain the transplant process. It was created to reach people who learn by listening, Mandarin speakers and people who are English language learners."

"Discovery to Recovery: A Child's Guide to Bone Marrow Transplant"
"An award-winning educational, interactive DVD and booklet for children ages five to nine who will be undergoing a marrow or cord blood transplant. The DVD tells the transplant story through two engaging puppets and provides interviews from children and their families who have been through the transplant process. The accompanying booklet is designed as a supportive tool to promote transplant discussion within the family."

Handout on Thrombocytopenia in 10 Languages

Inova Fairfax Hospital's Life with Cancer program has developed a patient education handout entitled Thrombocytopenia: When Your Platelets are Low. This one-page handout is available in French, English, Spanish, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, Vietnamese, Chinese, Farsi, Arabic, and Urdu. Thrombocytopenia is available free of charge and can be downloaded for use in .pdf format.

Resource for People with Cancer on Complementary and Alternative Medicine

The National Cancer Institute (NCI) and the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) has developed a publication to guide people with cancer to CAM resources.

This publication, entitled Thinking About Complementary and Alternative Medicine, features:

Basic descriptions of CAM modalities.
Guidance for evaluating CAM information.
A list of reliable CAM resources.
Tips for talking with traditional healthcare providers about CAM. Suggestions for finding certified CAM providers.

Free copies of "Thinking About Complementary and Alternative Medicine" are available online for viewing or downloading in .pdf format. This resource is available in English only.

Oncology Dietitians Needed to Review of NCI's "Eating Hints for Cancer Patients"

The National Cancer Institute is revising its publication "Eating Hints for Cancer Patients"and is seeking oncology dietitians to review and provide feedback on the existing book.

NCI will use the comments to identify information that needs to be updated, changed, or eliminated from the new version.

If you are interested in reviewing this resource and can do so by July 6, please contact Lorna Patrick at PatrickL (at) mail.nih.gov

Rhode Island's Health Literacy Provider Toolkit

The Rhode Island Health Literacy Project has developed a Health Literacy Provider Toolkit to "support better communication between consumers and providers, resulting in higher treatment compliance, fewer medication errors, and better utilization of healthcare services". This toolkit is a dynamic resource. As new topics are developed they will be added to the toolkit; the first edition of the HLPT includes information on the following topics: health literacy, advance directives, and cultural competency.

The entire 224-page document is available in its entirety or available as individual topics. Downloadable individual documents include patient forms (durable power of attorney and living will templates for Massachusetts and Rhode Island), topics related to cultural competency such as tips for office staff to enhance communication between staff and patients, physician resources such as articles, quizzes and talking points, and resources for patients such as FAQs about durable power of attorney.

Opportunity to Test Pilot NCI's La Quimioterapia y Usted

Patient Educators in the DC/Maryland/Virginia area! Looking for an opportunity to assist NCI in a revision of their publication La Quimioterapia y Usted? Please see the announcement below from the National Cancer Institute.

***

The National Cancer Institute is looking for volunteers to help pilot test La quimioterapia y usted, a Spanish revision to Chemotherapy and You. For this pilot test, NCI needs patient educators who treat and educate chemotherapy patients for whom Spanish is their native and preferred language. The pilot test will help NCI ensure that this new resource is a helpful educational tool for health professionals and meets the needs of Spanish-speaking patients.

The purpose of the pilot is to determine:
If the rewritten version of La quimioterapia y usted is a useful teaching tool
Your patients’ reactions to the content and presentation of the material
Your reactions to the usability of the book in patient education
Your patients’ ability to understand the terms, suggestions, and instructions that include English/Spanish vocabulary

If you or your colleagues are interested in participating in the pilot test of this book, please contact Karina Jimenez at ORC Macro, Project Manager, for detailed information at Karina.D.Jimenez(at)orcmacro.com or (301) 572-0303.

Cancer Survivor Resource in Chinese, English and Spanish

The Cancer Survival Toolbox is a free, self-learning audio program, developed by the National Coalition for Cancer Survivorship, to help people better meet and understand the challenges of their illness.

The Toolbox includes ten modules. Modules 1 through 6 cover six basic skills:

Communicating/Comunicación
Finding Information/Búsqueda de información
Making Decisions/Toma de decisiones
Solving Problems/Solución a los problemas
Negotiating/Negociación, and
Standing Up for Your Rights/Defensa de sus derechos

Modules 7, 8, 9 and 10 build on the skills learned in the first six modules and relate them to specific aspects of cancer survivorship. These three modules cover:

Topics for Older Persons/Temas para la tercera edad
Finding Ways to Pay for Care/Búsquedas de alternativas para pagar los cuidados
Caring for the Caregiver/Cuidados para el encargado del paciente, and
Living Beyond Cancer/Vida después del cáncer

The public can listen to the 10 modules in Spanish or English directly from the website, can download them as MP3 or Real Audio files, or can order the modules on CD at no cost.

"Safer Sunning" Resource in Spanish and English

The brochure, "Safer Sunning in Seven Steps", available online only in text format, describes the dangers of harmful rays from the sun, sunlamps, and tanning beds and who is at extra risk. The seven steps to safer sunning include tips for using sunscreen products and how to check the skin for signs of skin cancer. This resource, developed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, is available in English and in Spanish.

Healthy Weight Resources for Children

"Ways to Enhance Children's Activity and Nutrition" (We Can!) is a national program designed for families and communities to help children achieve a healthy weight. We Can! provides families and communities with a variety of resources and materials focused on three behaviors: improved food choices, increased physical activity, and reduced screen time. Patient materials include a tipsheet for parents, a parent handbook, tools for calculating Body Mass Index, worksheets for logging "screen time" and blue "We Can!" wristbands. Some of the materials are available in Spanish. This program was developed by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute in collaboration with the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, and the National Cancer Institute.

Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have developed a patient education resource on Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS). The color tri-fold "Understanding Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: A Guide for Patients" gives readers a brief overview of how CFS is diagnosed, managed, and treated. Also included is contact information for organizations that can provide further information on CFS.

Health Literacy Online Tutorial

A new interactive health literacy tutorial, entitled "Health Literacy: New Field, Now Opportunities" is now available online at no cost. The four sections of this interactive tutorial, developed by World Education and the National Network of Libraries of Medicine/New England region, include: "Health literacy challenge", "Who are the health literacy practitioners", "Successful Strategies and Practices", and "Applying what you have learned".

Listen to the stories of three people who are having a difficult time with information on mammography and breast health, medication compliance, and details related to their job-sponsored health benefits program. Learn about providers who work to help them navigate their way, and test your knowledge regarding the strategies and practices that can assist persons of all literacy levels.

"Health Literacy: New Field, New Opportunities" includes sound and requires the use of Flash plug-in.

Cancer Resources in Urdu

Urdu is the national language of Pakistan and one of the 23 official languages of India. It is estimated that over 100 million people speak Urdu worldwide. Cancerbackup, a British organization whose mission is "to give cancer patients and their families the up-to-date information, practical advice and support they need to reduce the fear and uncertainty of cancer" has produced four cancer-related fact sheets in English and Urdu. The four fact sheets, available in .pdf format, are "Breast Cancer", "Chemotherapy", "Radiotherapy", and "Surgery".

PTSD Resources in Arabic and Chinese

The International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies announces three new fact sheets on Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) available in Chinese and Arabic. Each fact sheet is available in .PDF format and includes the following titles: Children and Trauma, Mass Disaster and Trauma, and Trauma, Loss and Traumatic Grief.

ADEAR's Alzheimer's Disease Library

The ADEAR (Alzheimer's Disease Education & Referral) Center has launched the Alzheimer's Disease (AD) Library or AD Lib, with a new online interface for searching an extensive collection of health literature on AD.

AD Lib is fully searchable and integrates the AD Thesaurus of over 2,000 index terms that searchers can use to browse the collection.

Users also have access to frequently searched topics and other AD health information databases.
The AD Lib collection includes nearly 8,500 fact sheets, books, textbook chapters, journal articles, brochures, teaching manuals, directories, videos and other media, bibliographies, program descriptions, monographs, newsletters, and reports that are available from a wide variety of sources.

Medication Safety Brochure

In preparation for Health Literacy month in October, "Patient Education Matters!" will focus on two health literacy-related resources per month. Today we focus on a new brochure for consumers entitled "Your Medicine: Play it Safe". This publication suggests four ways to ensure safe use and management of medication. Also included is a medicine record form to help track medicines, vitamins and other dietary supplements that includes handy columns such as: "name and strength of medicine", color, "what it is for", "date began taking", "how much to take and when" and "do not take with". Other forms include reminders about what questions to ask before taking medications and a template for recording doctors and pharmacies.

Produced by the Agency for Healthcare Quality and Research, this 17-page brochure in English, is available free of charge in .pdf format. In addition, up to 10 print brochures can be ordered free of charge from AHQR.

Talking with Children About School Violence

The reliable resource KidsHealth.org has released tips for parents seeking to reassure their children after the most recent episode of school violence. Although school violence is rare (fewer than 1% of homicides occur on school grounds or on the way to or from school), the authors provide valuable suggestions such as:

Share your own feelings
Start the conversation
Tell them in concrete terms what will be done to make them feel safe
Be truthful about the news but do not go in to more detail than your child wants to know or can absorb
Carefully monitor exposure to violence over the television - if necessary, turn it off

Culturally Competent Care Quiz

Delve into your inner cultural competence by taking the Provider's Guide to Quality & Culture Quiz on a new website dedicated to assisting healthcare organizations in providing quality, culturally competent care to multi-ethnic populations. The Quality & Culture Quiz asks 23 thought-provoking questions intended to get you thinking about culturally-competent care.

What would your responses to the following sample questions?
Some symbols-a positive nod of the head, a pointing finger, a "thumbs-up" sign-are universal and can help bridge the language gap.

When a provider expects that a patient will understand a condition and follow a regimen, the patient is more likely to do so than if the provider has doubts about the patient.

Minority and immigrant patients in the US who go to traditional healers and use traditional medicines generally avoid conventional Western treatments.

Folic Acid Brochure for New Moms

"Congratulations, Mom. You Have a Beautiful Baby" explains why folic acid is important even after childbirth and reminds new mothers to take a multivitamin with folic acid every day. The brochure, produced by the National Birth Defects Prevention Network, is targeted to postpartum women. Tips on postpartum self-care, such as getting enough rest; finding time to relax; and eating a healthy, varied diet, are presented. Content is appropriate for use in a variety of settings, including hospitals, obstetric and pediatric offices, and family planning and WIC programs.

This full-color brochure in .PDF format is available in English and in Spanish.

Research Tools for English and Spanish Speakers

It's not often that you are told a research scale may be used "at no cost without permission" but thanks to the Stanford Patient Education Research Center (SPERC) and their funding from the National Institute of Nursing Research, over 30 scales have been made available to you at no cost and without permission!

The SPERC scales were developed, adapted or used by the staff of the SPERC who, over the past 24 years have developed, tested, and evaluated self-management programs for English and Spanish speakers with chronic health problems. Among their projects have been the evaluation tools available in both English and Spanish and they have made them extremely accessible. Via their website, SPERC gives you the items, their properties (if available), and coding and scoring instructions. They are also available as downloadable PDF files (using the PDF link at the bottom of each page). The tools are divided into six categories: Self management behaviors, self-efficacy, health status, health care utilization, education, and diabetes-specific scales. Instruments include "Arthritis Self-Efficacy", "Eating Breakfast with Protein", Visits to Providers", and "Shortness of Breath Visual Numeric".

Although these instruments are available to you free and without permission, do not neglect to give credit to SPERC when utilizing these tools.

Child Neglect, Diverse Patient Populations

A Joint Commission publication entitled "Hospitals, Language, and Culture: A Snapshot of the Nation" is a study "designed to provide a snapshot of how sixty hospitals across the country are providing health care to culturally and linguistically diverse patient populations." Among other important findings, analysis of the data "revealed three principal areas worthy of highlight because of their importance to patient safety. These included the provision of language services, the process for obtaining informed consent, and the collection and use of patient-level demographic data."

Clinical Trials Education Series

Do you educate peers, cancer patients, or community groups?

Do you want to learn more about clinical trials?

Do you have an interest in becoming a trial investigator?

Then you should consider the National Cancer Institute’s Clinical Trials Education Series to help you. CTES is a collection of more than 20 multimedia resources to educate cancer patients, health care professionals, advocates, and the general public about cancer prevention and treatment clinical trials.

The series contains materials in several formats, all of which can be adapted to fit your needs:
- Workbooks
- Resource and training manuals
- Slide presentations
- Booklets and brochures
- Videos

The series includes Spanish language resources, easy-to-read materials, and a Web-based course for health care professionals. To order FREE materials, call 1-800-4-CANCER or download them for free. Slide presentations and print materials are also available on a CD, which can be ordered from the Web site.

Multilingual Consumer Health Languages, Pediatric Education

The National Network of Libraries of Medicine (NN/LM), in cooperation with the Consumer Outreach Librarians, has compiled a webliography of consumer health resources in a variety of languages.

If you have an interest in pediatric patient and family education, Partners in Pediatric Education (P.I.P.E) may be the group for you! In its third year, P.I.P.E., a partner of the Health Care Education Association (HCEA), "is a national forum comprised of dedicated interdisciplinary pediatric educators who work cooperatively to help improve healthcare education in the field of pediatrics."

Welcome to the Patient Education Matters! Blog!

"Patient Education Matters!" a bi-weekly e-newsletter provided as a service of Inova Fairfax Health Sciences Library for the staff of Inova Fairfax Hospital has just hit its 20th edition mark. What to do with all those back issues and valuable links we have provided week after week? This blog will organize our original posts in abridged format and will be updated every two weeks in conjunction with the e-newsletter. In addition, more timely "special supplements" will be posted here.

We hope you enjoy this blog and we welcome your comments.

The Staff of "Patient Education Matters!"