The readability affects an individual’s ability to understand a text. The reading level of clients depends on their level of education (Arfé et al., 2018). The readability level of a high school graduate is different from the one of a higher education graduate. In healthcare, this means that it is important to write the texts based on a client’s level of education when giving medical instructions. For example, when providing medical instructions to a client, I have always considered education level of patients to enhance readability. I achieve this by making sure that the content is readable and that the language used is simple. Using simple words is a greater strategy of giving readers a pause, hence understanding the text.
The readability level of the instructions varies with the client’s education. The instructions I provided were simple to enable even a high school graduate to read effectively and get the information. For instance, the word count for each sentence I wrote for medical instruction to patients was between 21-30 (Readability Formulas, 2019). However, when providing medical instructions for higher education graduates, I usually use long sentences. These sentences enable me to convey the information more clearly to the client. I use sentences with more than 30 words for this category to make sure that all the required information is covered. Therefore, the medical instructions I give to clients are readable due to the format of the sentences and word count used.
Clients who have a higher education have a higher readability level than those at the high school level. A readability level shows the degree to which an individual can easily understand a text (Arfé et al., 2018). Clients with higher education can easily understand any text regardless of the structure. For instance, individuals with a higher level of education do not have a problem reading words with more than one syllable. For example, when writing a medical instruction to a higher-education client, I do not have to select words with few syllables to increase readability carefully. However, this is contrary to individuals with a low education level, such as high school. With this category, I must consider using words with fewer syllables. Thus, the readability of the text increases with an individual’s level of education.
Readability affects how clearly a text can be understood by a reader. By analyzing the readability of information, one is able to make the text as clear as possible (Arfé et al., 2018). With simple wording, short sentences, and fewer syllables, I am convinced that a high school client with an education level can read and understand the instruction (Readability Formulas, 2019). The clients will easily pronounce the words in the texts. In addition, the use of short sentences will allow the reader to read effectively because they will pause more frequently when reading.
Some of the other barriers to medical instruction compliance are demographic factors, religious beliefs, and level of trust in providers. With aging, an individual might have vision, hearing, and memory issues that affect compliance (Naghavi et al., 2019). An individual who is unable to see effective cannot comply with medical instructions. Religious beliefs are likely to prevent individuals from taking some medication or going through certain medical operations. This means that individuals might not comply with a medical instruction if it goes against their religious beliefs (Naghavi et al., 2019). An individual’s level of trust in providers also affects their compliance. Therefore, these barriers to compliance with medical instructions should be addressed.
References
Arfé, B., Mason, L., & Fajardo, I. (2018). Simplifying informational text structure for struggling readers.Reading and Writing, 31(9), 2191-2210. Web.
Naghavi, S., Mehrolhassani, M. H., Nakhaee, N., & Yazdi-Feyzabadi, V. (2019). Effective factors in non-compliance with therapeutic orders of specialists in outpatient clinics in Iran: A qualitative study.BMC Health Services Research, 19(1), 1-16. Web.
Readability Formulas. (2019). The SMOG readability formula, a Simple Measure of Gobbledygook. Web.