Health Information and Patient Education-Resources and Training for the Salvation Army Student-Run Free Clinic

The Health Infonnation Library, a collaborative effon of the University of Kentucky Hospital and the UK Chandler Medical Center Library, is applying for a Consumer Health Award to be used to help fund patient education and health/wellness promotion at the Salvation Army Student-Run Free Clinic in Lexington Kentucky. This Clinic is a pannership of the UK College of Medicine and the Salvation Army of Central Kentucky and serves the uninsured of Lexington/Fayette County. The award will be used to provide the Clinic with appropriate (e.g., low literacy and Spanish) patient education tools in the fonnats of models, posters, videos, and brochures. It will also provide access to the vast resources of MEDLINEplus by supplying a computer, color printer, and Internet access. Other supported activities will include: 1) training sessions for the medical students in areas such as selecting patient education resources and providing culturally and literacy-level appropriate infonnation and 2) the creation of very-low literacy materials for a selection of the top diagnoses treated at the Clinic. Our goal is to enhance the excellent healthcare that Free Clinic patrons already receive by helping to make patient education an integral part of their experience at the Clinic. At the same time, we hope to influence the medical stUdents to routinely incorporate effective patient education into their practice - both in this Clinic and in their future practice.