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Article: Health care illiteracy: your chance to make a difference.(GUEST EDITORIAL)(Editorial)
- Article from:
- JAAPA-Journal of the American Academy of Physicians Assistants
- Article date:
- May 1, 2005
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2005 Haymarket Media, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Yolanda has been a patient in our clinic for about 20 years now. In addition to other chronic problems, Yolanda has diabetes and hypertension. When I * started to care for Yolanda, I was frustrated. All of her numbers were off. Her glycohemoglobin was 10.2%, and her BP was always high. They taught us in PA school to write out instructions in easy-to-read English for patients having difficulties. I did, and she still was out of control. I had all of her instructions translated into Spanish, her native language, but nothing changed. One day, something dawned on me, and I asked Yolanda if she could read. She meekly told me that she couldn't read at all. She had been too ...