Continuing Education Opportunities

The spring meeting will be held Friday, April 4th, 2008 at the Medical Heritage Center Prior Health Sciences Library The Ohio State University

Course Description
Knowledge of, and sensitivity to issues of low health literacy is crucial for effective communication.  A lack of effective verbal and written health information can cause serious problems for an organization and the individuals it serves.  4 MLA CE Credits.

The focus of this workshop will give participants:

• An overview of the low health literacy issues, implications, and barriers faced by people who interface with the health care system
• Insight into the struggles and barriers people with low literacy encounter in the health care system
• Principles to use when communicating with clients
• Organizational strategies to promote health literacy
• Plain Language agenda and legislation
• Plain language criteria for selecting or writing health materials that are easy-to-read
• How to do a Fry readability test on materials
• A brief overview of eHealth Literacy
• How to promote health literacy as a librarian

Speakers:  Janet Petty and Sandy Cornett

Janet Petty, MLIS, AHIP provides reference services to medical, nursing, and management staff as well as consumer health information for patients, family members and the public in her role as Associate Librarian for Patient and Family Education/Reference Services at Craig Memorial Library, Miami Valley Hospital, Dayton, Ohio. Janet has oversight of the development, revision and distribution of all approved patient education materials at Miami Valley Hospital. This includes editing and evaluating the readability of the materials, whether developed in house or purchased commercially.

Janet has also developed a Patient and Family Education Intranet website that provides access for printing or ordering materials online. Last year over 100,000 patient education brochures were distributed.

Janet has been an advocate for Health Literacy since October 2001, where she was part of the first Ohio Health Literacy Institute training program. She has developed and given numerous presentations to nurses, physicians, and allied health personnel at Miami Valley Hospital reaching over 2,000 health care professionals.  In addition, she has given presentations to the Dayton area health sciences and public librarians, joint presentations with Sandy Cornett in the Dayton and Cincinnati areas as well as participating in a Medical Library Association teleconference in 2003.

Janet received her BA in History from Wright State University, Dayton, Ohio and her MLIS from Kent State University, Kent, Ohio. She is a member of the Ohio Health Sciences Library Association, Midwest Chapter of the Medical Library Association, the Medical Library Association and a Senior Member of the Academy of Health Information Professionals.

For 21 years, Dr. Sandy Cornett served as Program Manager of Consumer Health Education at The Ohio State University Medical Center, Columbus, Ohio. In this capacity she was responsible for implementing a coordinated and comprehensive patient and health education system across the OSU Health System. Under her direction, over 3,000 titles of patient education materials written below an 8th grade reading level were developed and placed on the medical center’s intra and internet. In 1996, Dr. Cornett established a Center for Health Information (consumer health education library) within the hospitals where a large quantity of materials directed to persons with low-literacy and other language materials is available for patients, families, staff, and the general public. A grant was awarded to her in 2001 to help meet the health education needs of a large Somali population in Columbus.

For the past 6 years, Dr. Cornett has been in a part-time position as Director of the OSU / AHEC Health Literacy Initiative, now known as the AHEC Clear Health Communication Program.  This initiative entails raising awareness about health literacy issues, training of students and practitioners in the health professions, instituting consultative services for organizations that need assistance with health literacy issues, and researching ways to meet the challenges of low health literacy through community demonstration projects. Since taking this position, Dr. Cornett has trained over 5, 000 healthcare professionals and students in the health sciences.

Dr. Cornett graduated with a BS in Nursing in 1965, a MS in Nursing Education & Administration in 1970 and a Ph.D. in Adult Education and Instructional Design in 1981 from The Ohio State University. She has been a staff nurse, nurse manager, clinical nurse specialist, assistant director of staff development, faculty at 3 Universities, and has given continuing education presentations to health professionals at the local, state, and national level for over 37 years.