Using Medical Words with Family Caregivers

Wittenberg-Lyles, Elaine; Goldsmith, Joy; Oliver, Debra Parker; Demiris, George; Kruse, Robin L.; Stee, Stephanie Van

doi:10.1089/jpm.2013.0041

Cited by 13 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 17 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Health‐care professionals need to be able to assess this and tailor their use of terminology to the individual patient. Like Wittenberg‐Lyles et al . and Dahm, we suggest an adaptive approach, where patients’ needs and abilities are established and addressed in a patient‐centred way.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Health-care professionals need to be able to assess this and tailor their use of terminology to the individual patient. Like Wittenberg-Lyles et al 58 and Dahm, 1 we suggest an adaptive approach, where patients' needs and abilities are established and addressed in a patient-centred way. Appropriate pitching of terms can avoid the potentially damaging effects of poor communication brought about by inappropriate (too complex or too simple) use of terms.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Medical terminology in online patient–patient communication: evidence of high health literacy?

Fage-Butler

Jensen

2015

Health Expectations

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

BackgroundHealth communication research and guidelines often recommend that medical terminology be avoided when communicating with patients due to their limited understanding of medical terms. However, growing numbers of e‐patients use the Internet to equip themselves with specialized biomedical knowledge that is couched in medical terms, which they then share on participatory media, such as online patient forums.ObjectiveGiven possible discrepancies between preconceptions about the kind of language that patients can understand and the terms they may actually know and use, the purpose of this paper was to investigate medical terminology used by patients in online patient forums.DesignUsing data from online patient–patient communication where patients communicate with each other without expert moderation or intervention, we coded two data samples from two online patient forums dedicated to thyroid issues.ResultsPrevious definitions of medical terms (dichotomized into technical and semi‐technical) proved too rudimentary to encapsulate the types of medical terms the patients used. Therefore, using an inductive approach, we developed an analytical framework consisting of five categories of medical terms: dictionary‐defined medical terms, co‐text‐defined medical terms, medical initialisms, medication brand names and colloquial technical terms. The patients in our data set used many medical terms from all of these categories.Discussion and conclusionsOur findings suggest the value of a situated, condition‐specific approach to health literacy that recognizes the vertical kind of knowledge that patients with chronic diseases may have. We make cautious recommendations for clinical practice, arguing for an adaptive approach to medical terminology use with patients.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Medical terminology in online patient–patient communication: evidence of high health literacy?

Fage-Butler

Jensen

2015

Health Expectations

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Several substudy analyses that were related to this study but had unique research questions are reported elsewhere. 20,[23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34] Our protocol required coders to achieve intercoder agreement of 80% or greater before independently coding data. Trustworthiness in analysis was assured through prolonged engagement, an extensive audit trail, multiple coders, and regular debriefing between all researchers.…”

Section: Qualitative Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

Hospice Family Caregiver Involvement in Care Plan Meetings: A Mixed-Methods Randomized Controlled Trial

Oliver

Demiris

Washington

et al. 2016

Am J Hosp Palliat Care

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Background, Objective Untrained family caregivers struggle with complicated medical management regimens for hospice patients. An intervention was tested to improve caregiver's perception of pain management and patient pain. Design, Setting and Participants The intervention was tested with a two group (usual care vs intervention) randomized controlled trial using parallel mixed methods analysis of 446 caregivers in three Midwestern hospice programs representing rural and urban settings. Intervention Web-conferencing or telephones were used to connect caregivers with the hospice care team during care plan meetings. Measurements Caregiver perceptions of pain management were the primary outcome. Secondary outcomes included caregiver quality of life, patient pain, and anxiety. Video recordings, field notes, caregiver and staff interviews provided qualitative data. Results The overall perception of pain management was not changed by the participation in hospice team meetings. Perceptions of fatalism improved for intervention participants and the intervention participants perceived their patients’ pain was better controlled than those in the control group. The intervention was found to be feasible to deliver in rural areas. Caregiver anxiety and patient pain were correlated (r=.18; p=.003) and sub-analysis indicated that caregivers of cancer patients may benefit more from the intervention than other hospice caregivers. Qualitative analyses provided understanding of caregiver perceptions of pain, cost, and facilitators and barriers to routine involvement of family in care plan meetings. Limitations, Conclusions The Hospice philosophy is supportive of caregiver involvement in care planning, and technology makes this feasible; the intervention needs modification to become translational as well as additional measurement to assess effectiveness. Caregiver education and emotional support should occur outside the meeting and a strong leader should facilitate the meeting to control efficiency. Finally, the intervention may benefit caregivers of cancer patients more than others.

show abstract

“…One finding from this work was that as the grade-level talk in the conversation increased, so too did the anxiety level of caregivers (Wittenberg-Lyles et al, 2013a), which in turn led to confusion among caregivers about how to properly provide pain medication at home. Another finding was that hospice team members used six times as many medical words as caregivers (Wittenberg-Lyles et al, 2013b). "Yes, we do have caregivers who can learn how to present to an attending physician, but those are few and far between in our family caregiver population," said Wittenberg.…”

Section: Nurse Trainingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Health Literacy and Palliative Care

Alper¹

2016

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

Using Medical Words with Family Caregivers

Cited by 13 publications

References 17 publications

Medical terminology in online patient–patient communication: evidence of high health literacy?

Medical terminology in online patient–patient communication: evidence of high health literacy?

Hospice Family Caregiver Involvement in Care Plan Meetings: A Mixed-Methods Randomized Controlled Trial

Health Literacy and Palliative Care

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About