I recently attended the Symposium,” Health Literacy: The Foundation for 
Patient Safety, Empowerment, and Quality Heath Care,” put on by the 
Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations. The event 
was held June 26 and 27.

I came away from the symposium with good feelings. I felt good because 
two of us were former adult literacy students. We were invited to speak 
as part of the program and our voices were heard! When we are seen and 
heard this can brings a message of hope to others outside the health 
field-the message that we are, and we should be, involved in our own 
health care.

A lot of things were discussed and a lot of different things will happen 
because of this symposium, but the thing that I took away from the 
symposium was how important doctor and patient communication is. One of 
the things that was encouraged was not to suppress patient questions, 
but to create a climate to get the patient to express themselves. 
Another thing that was encouraged is for patients to be open right at 
first part of their visit. Not wait until the end of the office visit to 
ask the most important question.

After attending the symposium when I got home I had a visit set up to 
see a doctor. I was looking forward to this visit after being at the 
symposium. I had never been seen by this doctor before. He appeared to 
be a very pleasant and a nice person. He asked me some questions then 
handed me a prescription and when I ask him a question he was out the 
door before I got an answer. All the good things I had taken in at the 
symposium now had disappeared in my mind and I realized we, as doctor 
and patient, did not communication.

Where do we go from here? Two of the things we need are more patient to 
be willing to advocate for themselves and more health care professions 
to advocate for the better patient communication with their colleagues.

Archie Willard

Adult Learner

Health Literacy Advocate

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URL - http://www.readiowa.org/archiew.html