A literacy-addressing training model to improve doctor-patient communication between community healthcare professional and patients with diabetes / 中华医学教育探索杂志

ABSTRACT

Diabetes patients in China is large in number, low level of health literacy, and their self management mainly relies on community doctor's health propaganda and education, as a result, it is very important to train community healthcare professionals to improve their communication skills with patients.Guided by the Social Cognitive Theory (SCT), the researchers developed a literacy-addressing training model specifically through 1) low literacy healthcare education materials written in plain language, simple text, maximal white space, and behavior-oriented images or pictograms;2) a standardized health communication curriculum to promote simple communication with decreased jargon usage, teach teach back, and enhance shared goal-setting;3) use of standardized patients to enhance doctor-patient communication training;and 4) MOOC and a series of videos demonstrating doctor-patient communication scenarios.The novel training model can be used in continuing medical education through traditional on-site classes or by E-learning platform.It is expected to improve the communication skills of community doctors and patients, improve the satisfaction of both doctors and patients, and the effect of patients' self-management.