Health Information Outreach Award 75

This a pilot project to develop curriculum to teach current and future healthcare professionals how to address patient needs throughout the state of Georgia with health literacy in mind. The goal is to improve a clinician's ability to identify and communicate effectively with patients at the appropriate level of health literacy. This project will be the first phase to train health science librarians on health literacy tools, how to implement these tools, and how to teach others, including but not limited to medical school students, practicing clinicians, and other interested librarians. During this phase we will review the health needs of Georgians and create curriculum using resources available through NN/LM to address the most common health disparities in the state. A core group of health science librarians will receive in depth health literacy training through conferences and the Georgia Alliance for Health Literacy. The curriculum will then be tested in senior centers, youth after school programs, and in multiple hospital settings to clinical 12s, medical students, and patients. Once the curriculum is finalized, training will be offered to the Georgia Health Sciences Library Association and the Atlanta Health Science Libraries Consortium members to take to their institutions and hospitals for student/staff training. Phase two will continue with outreach efforts for train-the-trainer classes and additional community outreach projects in the Atlanta metro region and 95 northern and southern regions in Georgia. This phase will include additional surveys and interviews on the effectiveness of the curriculum for both clinicians and community members.