A literacy-addressing training model to improve doctorpatient communication between community healthcare professional and patients with diabetes

Abstract

Diabetes patients in China is large in number, low level of health literacy, and their self management mainly relies on community doctor's health propaganda and education, as a result, it is very important to train community healthcare professionals to improve their communication skills with patients. Guided by the Social Cognitive Theory (SCT), the researchers developed a literacy-ad-dressing training model specifically through: 1) low literacy healthcare education materials written in plain language, simple text, maximal white space, and behavior-oriented images or pictograms; 2) a standardized health communication curriculum to promote simple communication with decreased jargon usage, teachteach back, and enhance shared goal-setting; 3) use of standardized patients to enhance doctor-patient communication training; and 4) MOOC and a series of videos demonstrating doctor-patient communication scenarios. The novel training model can be used in continuing medical education through traditional onsite classes or by E-learning platform. It is expected to improve the communication skills of community doctors and patients, improve the satisfaction of both doctors and patients, and the effect of patients' self-management. Key words: Community healthcare professional; Diabetes patients; Doctor-patient communication; Training model