All things to all people
All things to all people
Resource center strives to meet community needs
To meet the needs of the community it serves, the Patient Education Resource Center located at San Francisco General Hospital Medical Center must keep materials on hand in many different languages. The primary requests are for materials in English, Spanish, Chinese, Vietnamese, and Russian, but staff work hard to meet requests for more obscure languages as well. "We have focused on obtaining materials that are written in many languages and at low reading levels," says Geri Berkvam, RN, FNP, coordinator of the resource center.
The goal is to provide the community with educational resources that are suited to the various cultures, languages, and educational levels of the population, but this is a difficult goal to meet. Years ago, there was funding for translation of materials, but that is no longer so, says Berkvam.
The resource center is allocated a certain amount of money each year as part of the general budget. However, a consistent effort is made to build the collection by keeping abreast of resources for foreign language materials.
For example, many Asian-language materials have been obtained by networking with organizations that work with the same cultural groups. The Atlanta-based American Cancer Society has a regional facility in nearby Fremont, CA, that has information written in Chinese. "Often, the regional offices of national organizations have materials that are culturally sensitive to the population that lives there," explains Berkvam.
Culturally sensitive materials are essential in order for the resource center to achieve its purpose in such a diverse community. The resource center is designed to:
• promote and sustain wellness;
• meet ongoing health care needs;
• promote an awareness of illness and injury prevention;
• provide individuals with information to make decisions about their health and their lives.
To help visitors find the information they want, a brochure was designed to explain how to access materials at the center. It explains that a catalog located at the reception desk lists all major subject categories with an inventory number, title, and the languages of the materials on that topic in the center’s collection. Subject binders, located on the shelves within the center, have samples of materials and an inventory number that makes it easy for center visitors to locate the pamphlets.
Large quantities of the materials can be obtained by filling out an order form, a procedure staff from the hospital and clinics follow to get the teaching materials they need. Medical staff, patients and their family members, and people from the community use the resource center at San Francisco General.
"The resource center initially was started to provide educational materials to the staff of the hospital, who in turn gave materials to the patients," says Berkvam. Yet many improvements have been made since the center first opened over a decade ago. It was launched in one large room in the hospital, but it was not a facility where visitors could browse. Also, it did not have an organized system for distribution of materials.
Resource center located in medical library
To help track and distribute materials, the pamphlets in stock were organized into categories. A database was developed as well. To make the resource center more accessible, the facility was moved to the medical library. Since the move, the resource center is used by a wider range of staff who provide services to patients, says Berkvam.
Being located in a medical library has other advantages in addition to being more accessible to medical staff and the community. The resource center is only staffed five days a week, but because the library is open seven days a week, its staff help people find materials in the resource center. The center has a coordinator and a secretary on staff. Volunteers offer clerical support such as assembling or folding materials.
Also, the resources of the medical library are readily available. For example, people can read the books in the library or copy pages of pertinent materials. They also can access the Internet on the computers at the medical library. The resource center has pamphlets, two computers with reference databases, and videos. "When we did our last survey, 100% of the people were satisfied with finding materials on the topics and subjects they needed," says Berkvam.
Surveys help keep the resource center on track. Berkvam evaluates the performance of the center in other ways as well. The database provides an opportunity to keep track of both inventory and distribution. For example, if the medical center reported diabetes as one of its primary diagnoses but the resource center didn’t observe a high demand for pamphlets on this disease, staff would know to investigate the discrepancy. It also would be easy to determine where diabetes pamphlets were being distributed.
"Every year as part of my annual report, I look at the subject categories and how many materials were distributed within those categories and within the different languages. I see if they match our institution’s annual report," says Berkvam. This evaluation helps her obtain materials that are of use to the community and medical staff.
Subscribe Now for Access
You have reached your article limit for the month. We hope you found our articles both enjoyable and insightful. For information on new subscriptions, product trials, alternative billing arrangements or group and site discounts please call 800-688-2421. We look forward to having you as a long-term member of the Relias Media community.