Why don't more doctors use pictures to teach patients ?
" There are several reasons why these strategies are not used more often.
The most commonly cited reason is the time it takes to help someone truly
understand something; time is money in the modern world and reimbursement
for healthcare education is not reimbursed well if at all in most
healthcare scenarios. Perhaps an even more common but unacknowledged
reason is that most clinicians have little if any training in teaching and
LEARNING. If the clinician knows nothing about learning, s/he cannot
possibly appreciate the value of pictures in medical/health education.
Both of these root causes are remediable---but only with the development
of the political will to make it happen."
Dr Howard J Zeitz, MD
Co-Chair, Rockford Regional Partnership for Health Literacy (RRPHL)
I fell and broke my hip last year, made the emergency trip to the hospital, had surgery and when the surgeon came to my room afterwards I asked what he did. He immediately walked to a blackboard in the room and drew a picture of the hip bone and the pins and a plate he'd used. As I drowsed I could look at that and see what new equipment I would be carrying around. I really appreciated that.
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