The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) emphasizes the need for improved communication between patients and healthcare providers as a way to improve healthcare. AHRQ provides a Web site (http://www.ahrq.gov/questions/) with guidelines to assist patients in preparing questions for their healthcare providers. A series of short videos are available for viewing that serve to encourage questions and provide suggestions as to how to best communicate questions and concerns. The Web site emphasizes that most people ask more questions when they order a meal or buy a cell phone than when they visit a healthcare provider.

An entertaining and creative series of very short (30 seconds to 1 minute) videos emphasize that healthcare providers are not able to read the minds of their patients to determine patient needs or concerns. Another section of the Web site encourages patients to prepare for their appointments by writing down what they want to ask. AHRQ even provides a "Question Builder" to assist patients in preparing a list of questions focused on specific concerns such as health problems, medications, medical tests, and treatments. A guide to prioritizing questions is also provided. Even "notepads" can be printed and used as templates to assist patients with asking questions.

The guidelines provided by AHRQ are accessible, efficient, accurate, and organized. Nursing students, faculty, and patients can both benefit from reviewing and using the Web site. In addition, the guidelines provide good examples of effective communication for our students to examine.

Source: Patient Safety Update: Patient Safety Awareness Week-AHRQ tools help foster communication between patients and physicians. AHRQ Daily Digest Bulletin. March 5, 2012. Available at http://www.ahrq.gov/questions/. Accessed March 6, 2012.

Submitted by: Robin E. Pattillo, PhD, RN, CNL, news editor at ([email protected].