Consumer Health and the Hospital Library- A Literacy Initiative

ABSTRACT

Consumer health is the latest buzzword in public librarianship. There is current research supporting integrating consumer health literacy initiatives into public libraries and that these initiatives are beneficial to public library patrons; however, there is very little research on integrating consumer health information and literacy into hospital libraries. The present study addresses the question of whether hospital patients have an interest and would be receptive to adding a clinical librarian to their health care provider team. Data collected from patrons in a hospital setting revealed that patients supported the addition of literacy care and instruction into direct patient care.

KEYWORDS:

• Consumer health
• health literacy
• hospital librarianship
• patient care teams

Acknowledgments

The author thanks Dr. Yin Zhang and the wonderful faculty at Kent State University without whom this research would not have been possible.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.