Kayley

Imagine you’re a patient at the doctor’s office. You recently had surgery, and your doctor is explaining the aftercare instructions. But the words are complicated, the directions are complex, and you find yourself stuck. What would you do? This is a common problem that has significant consequences. What Is Health Literacy? According to the Institute of Medicine, health literacy is “the ability to obtain, process, and understand basic health information.” Many factors contribute to an individual’s health literacy including the person’s general literacy — the ability to read, write, and understand written text and numbers. Other factors include a person’s amount of experience with the healthcare system, the type of information, culture, and the communication method. Implications Of Limited Health […]

A recent survey by AMN Healthcare revealed several internal factors that are significantly impacting the existing nursing shortage – and not in a good way. AMN Healthcare, a leading national workforce staffing company, surveyed nearly 20,000 Registered Nurses across the country to identify challenges facing nurses and healthcare organizations that will impact health care services throughout the next decade. The results paint a picture of a perfect storm: a rapidly aging U.S. population on a collision course with a tsunami of retiring Baby Boomer nurses, making the already-critical nurse shortage even more ominous. According to the survey, 33% of RNs identified as Baby Boomers. Of those, 86% plan to retire within the next five years. Because the size of the […]

Population health is (as defined by the Center for Disease Control) an interdisciplinary, customizable approach that allows health departments to connect practice to policy for change to happen locally. The CDC describes this approach as different sectors of the healthcare community utilizing non-traditional partnerships among different sectors of the community (public health, industry, academia, etc.) to achieve positive health outcomes. Population health “brings significant health concerns into focus and addresses ways that resources can be allocated to overcome the problems that drive poor health conditions in the population.” What Are Some Issues Negatively Impacting Population Health? It’s fair to say that nearly everyone working in healthcare is committed to ensuring that all patients receive the best outcome possible. Despite many […]