Last year, three Medical College of Georgia students - Anupama Kathiresan, Jeremiah Johnson and David Newton - ran across information about adult literacy education on the AMA Web site and ordered a kit to find out more.
"We discovered that nearly 50 percent of U.S. adults read below an eighth-grade level and that low literacy has negative effects on people's health," Johnson said.
People who don't read well are less likely to ask questions of their doctors, read treatment materials or even medication bottles.
"We thought the information was important and should be included in our medical school curriculum," he said.
Their professors agreed and asked the students to give a class lecture about the communication gap between low-literacy patients and their health care providers. Researching further, they decided they wanted to try and bridge that gap in the community.
"We found out the low-literacy level was almost 60 percent in Augusta, but that literacy centers were addressing the problem," Kathiresan said. "We thought our students could help people learn to read while teaching them about their health."
Recruiting fellow students, the three began writing a curriculum of interactive lectures with reading and writing exercises to be given at local adult literacy centers, like the one at Augusta Technical College.
"A student would talk to the class about the heart and then give a free blood-pressure screening, or combine a lecture about diabetes and diet with a blood glucose screening," Johnson said.
"We were using our money for materials and I think on the verge of nervous breakdowns trying to find the time, but we felt strongly about the cause and the sacrifice really paid off," Kathiresan said.
Their MCG Project HOSPITAL (Health Outreach, Screenings & Prevention in Teaching Adult Literacy) was awarded a Caring for the Community Grant of $30,000 over four years.
Sponsored by the Association of American Medical Colleges and the Pfizer Medical Humanities Initiative, it's one of only eight community service initiatives in the nation selected for funding. The money will go for class materials, exhibits and health screening costs.
Kim Rathbun, a second-year MCG student, has signed on to schedule the lectures and continue to add to the curriculum.
"We now have dental students who talk about oral health and nursing students to discuss breast cancer at women's shelters," she said. "Pharmacy students come with a giant pill bottle to show people how to read a label and take medications properly."
Johnson said literacy students are receptive to their programs and feels like they are better equipped to ask informed questions of their health care providers.
"Giving these lectures is a pleasure because the people really want to learn and they ask insightful questions," he said.
"As future health care providers, we've taken an oath to do no harm, but as compassionate human beings we want to actively improve the health of our patients in any way possible."
"We've learned from this project on so many levels," Kathireson agreed. "Personally interacting with these individuals in a classroom setting is rewarding and we've learned communication strategies that will be helpful with our future patients."
Although busy with their third-year studies, Project HOSPITAL founders have found the time to post a module on health literacy on the AMA student Web site.
"When we started, we didn't even know that Augusta had literacy centers, so we've tried to put all we've learned in one easy-to-use place," Kathireson said.
The group is hoping that health care students will use the resources to plan health/literacy events in their own communities.
For information, see www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/category/13043.html.