Crossing the Brooklyn Bridge: a health literacy training partnership before and during COVID-19
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5195/jmla.2021.1014Keywords:
Health Literacy, COVID-19, Novel Coronavirus, Consumer Health, Reference Interviews, Patient-Centered Care, Shared Decision-MakingAbstract
Background: A request for consumer health information training for public librarians led to the development of a specialized consumer health reference and health literacy training program by professional consumer health librarians from an academic medical center. Professional consumer health librarians created an interactive presentation aimed at improving public librarians’ ability to respond to consumer health questions and provide vetted health resources.
Case Presentation: Building on professional expertise, librarians at Weill Cornell Medicine developed a live class demonstration accompanied by a representative subject LibGuide to support public librarians who assist patrons with health questions. Skills involved in effectively communicating with patrons who are seeking consumer health information include conducting reference interviews, matching patrons’ needs with appropriate resources, teaching useful Internet search methods, assessing health information, and understanding health literacy issues. Originally envisioned as two in-person live demonstrations, the team proactively adapted the program to respond to the stay-at-home social-distancing order put in place in response to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.
Conclusions: The team successfully led an in-person live training session followed by an adapted online training experience, the latter designed to complete the curricula while complying with city and state orders.References
Park H, Cormier E, Glenna G. Health consumers eHealth literacy to decrease disparities in accessing eHealth information. Stud Health Technol Inform. 2016;225:895–6. Epub 2016/06/23. PubMed PMID: 27332397.
Harley K. The Human Genome Project community conversations at the Brooklyn Public Library. Public Libr. 2011 May/Jun;50(3):38–41.
Kouame G, Harris M, Murray S. Consumer health information from both sides of the reference desk. Libr Trends. 2005 Winter;53(3):464–79.
Berkman ND, Sheridan SL, Donahue KE, Halpern DJ, Crotty K. Low health literacy and health outcomes: an updated systematic review. Ann Intern Med. 2011 Jul;155(2):97–107. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.7326/0003-4819-155-2-201107190-00005.
O’Malley R. Health information for youth: the public library and school library media center role. School Libr J. 2008;54(5):164.
Powe A. The ABCs of hospital storytelling at the Brooklyn Public Library. Children Libr. 2007 Winter;5(3):28–30.
Vyduna J, Gessler B, Eby S. Poll everywhere [Internet]. San Francisco, CA: Poll Everywhere; 2020 [cited 1 Mar 2020]. <https://www.polleverywhere.com/>.
Morris NS, MacLean CD, Chew LD, Littenberg B. The single item literacy screener: evaluation of a brief instrument to identify limited reading ability. BMC Fam Pract. 2006 Mar 24;7:21.
Eo YS, Kim JS. Associations of health belief and health literacy with Pap smear practice among Asian immigrant women. Eur J Oncol Nurs. 2019 Oct;42:63–8. Epub 2019/08/26. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ejon.2019.08.003. PubMed PMID: 31446265.
Song L, Mishel M, Bensen JT, Chen RC, Knafl GJ, Blackard B, Farnan L, Fontham E, Su LJ, Brennan CA, Mohler JL, Godley PA. How does health literacy affect quality of life among men with newly diagnosed clinically localized prostate cancer? findings from the North Carolina-Louisiana Prostate Cancer Project (PCaP). Cancer. 2012 Aug 1;118(15):3842–51. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/cncr.26713. Epub 2011/12/20. PubMed PMID: 22180041.
Khuu BP, Lee HY, Zhou AQ. Health literacy and associated factors among Hmong American immigrants: addressing the health disparities. J Community Health. 2018 Feb;43(1):11–8. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10900-017-0381-0. Epub 2017/05/22. PubMed PMID: 28528527.
Kobayashi LC, Wardle J, Wolf MS, von Wagner C. Cognitive function and health literacy decline in a cohort of aging English adults. J Gen Intern Med. 2015 Jul;30(7):958–64. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11606-015-3206-9. Epub 2015/02/15. PubMed PMID: 25680352; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC4471026.
Norman CD, Skinner HA. eHEALS: the eHealth literacy scale. J Med Internet Res. 2006 Nov 14;8(4):e27. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.2196/jmir.8.4.e27. Epub 2007/01/11. PubMed PMID: 17213046; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC1794004.
Cornell Medicine, Samuel J. Wood Library. Crossing the Brooklyn Bridge: Weill Cornell medical librarians partner with the Brooklyn Public Library [Internet]. The Library; 2020 [cited 16 May 2020]. <http://med.cornell.libguides.com/Brooklyn>.
Bond S. Gunning fog index [Internet]. Bond S [cited 1 May 2020]. <http://www.gunning-fog-index.com/>.
Agency for Health Research and Quality. The patient education materials assessment tool (PEMAT) and user’s guide [Internet]. The Agency [cited 1 May 2020]. <https://www.ahrq.gov/ncepcr/tools/self-mgmt/pemat.html>.
Danhoundo G, Whistance-Smith D, Lemoine D, Konkin J. Provision of consumer health information in Alberta’s rural public libraries. Health Inf Libr J. 2019 Mar;36(1):41–59. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/hir.12248. Epub 2019/02/01. PubMed PMID: 30701664.
Koos JA, Saragossi J, Stevens GA, Filosa S. A partnership between academic and public librarians: “What the Health” workshop series. J Med Libr Assoc. 2019 Apr;107(2):232–7. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5195/jmla.2019.564.
