Older adults and the news media: utilization, opinions, and preferred reference terms.

We surveyed 868 community-dwelling older adults about their (a) utilization of media news, (b) opinion of news media coverage of older people, and (c) preferences among terms used by news media to refer to senior citizens. Those with more than high school education read more newspaper news than those with less education. All groups watched TV news more frequently than they read the newspaper. Respondents had reservations about the news media's accuracy in, attitude toward, and interest in stories regarding seniors. Clear education and gender-related patterns emerged, whereas age proved nonsignificant in many analyses. Respondents' preferred reference terms were: (nouns) senior citizen, retiree, senior, and older adult; (adjectives) retired, senior, and mature. Respondents disliked: (nouns) old man/woman, old person, oldster, old timer, and geezer; (adjectives) old, aged, gray, and geriatric.

Parenting classes as a part of a hospice bereavement program.

The impact of a loss is felt throughout the family system with the parent-child relationship being particularly vulnerable. The experience of The Mount Carmel Hospice Evergreen Center with a parenting program is presented. Responding to the expressed concerns of grieving parents, a time-limited parenting group was held. The quantitative and qualitative results of that experience are presented. In addition to normalizing the experience of parenting grieving children, the group provided the opportunity for parents to enhance skills and learn about the need to respect the individuality and uniqueness of the grief work of the child.

Patient education pamphlets about prevention, detection, and treatment of breast cancer for low literacy women.

The objective of this project was to identify and assess readily available patient education literature about prevention, detection and treatment of breast cancer for the patient with low literacy skills. The target population had a reading comprehension level of sixth grade or lower. Nineteen pamphlets were analyzed using RightWriter and were found to have an average readability index of 9.15, therefore requiring at least a ninth grade level of reading comprehension. As a consequence, many pieces of the available literature were inappropriate for the target population. There are implications as a broader group of health care providers becomes more involved in the treatment of low literacy patients. In providing patient education literature to poorly educated patients, special emphasis should be given to determining readability. Both currently available and newly created literature should be analyzed for readability before assuming it is an aid to patient education.

Occupational and demographic characteristics of the health care educator: a 20-year perspective.

This study describes the demographic and occupational patterns of the health care educator in the 1990s. A sample of ASHET members formed the study frame. The data obtained were compared with previous demographic and occupational pattern studies. Trend lines over the past 20 years seem to indicate relative stability in the health care educator's characteristics. Although better educated than in the past, the health care educator tends to be female, middle-aged, working in an acute care urban setting, occupying an administrative rather than instructional role, residing in a department of hospitalwide education and training, and reporting to a vice presidential level. This study also forecasts future patterns for the 21st Century.

How do health care education and training professionals learn about the environment?

Preparing for the health care system of the future includes the ability to abstract information from relevant sectors of the environment. This study looked at the way health care educators scan the environment and the relationship of scanning behavior to management style. Results indicate that education and training professionals focus on the regulatory and customer sectors of the environment more than the technological and sociopolitical sectors.