Health information can feel overwhelming. It’s everywhere, but is not always easy to navigate. This is why Health Information Week matters. It’s a reminder to staff and patients that good health information should be accessible, accurate, evidence-based, and human. Health Information Week is a national campaign promoting this, with a separate theme for each day:
Monday – Children and Young People
Tuesday – Translated Patient Information
Wednesday – Women’s Health
Thursday – Mental Health
Friday – Winter Health
To raise awareness among the staff and patients, we decided to have a stall at the main entrance of Warwick Hospital, as well as having displays of books and information in the libraries at both SWFT and GEH.
We decided to have our Health Information Week stall on the Tuesday, from 11:30am – 1:30pm. This was ideal, as it meant that people on their way to and from the café and Costa would walk past, as well as patients en route to their appointments.
On the stall we had a display of books on health information and health literacy, as well as promotional material for KnowledgeShare, BMJ Best Practice, LibKey Nomad, and Browzine. We also had chocolates, and some upcycled bookmarks, which were definitely attention grabbers.
While we had a lot of people pass by without interacting (too busy, on their way to meetings, desperate for lunch but will pop back later), we also had quite a few people stopping by for a chat. There were a mixture of new and familiar faces. Some people wanted to talk about where they looked for information for their patients or themselves – with staff generally using the main charity for the condition (i.e. Heart Foundation, MacMillan or Kidney Care UK) rather than the ubiquitous ‘Dr Google’, thankfully.
As I had recently rewatched NHS Derby and Derbyshire ICB short film on the Language of health and Health Literacy, I mentioned the use of jargon to fellow staff (as well as to some patients). Several people said how they, or family members, had experienced terms they didn’t understand being used during their treatment. I discussed the various different teaching methods with staff, such as ‘teach back‘ and ‘chunk and check‘.
People took leaflets to put in their staffrooms, and said that they would promote the Knowledge and Library Services to their colleagues – something which we’ll be following up in the spring with visits to staffrooms and wards, as well as having another stall.