How can information literacy training promote awareness of information needs and realising gaps in knowledge: a perspective allowing for patients, families and healthcare providers?

Introduction

Information Behaviour research shows that people is often unaware of their information needs (i.e. dormant information needs). They do not attempt to seek information, because they do not realise a gap between what they know and what they need to know. (Case, 2012; Fourie, 2008).

Purpose of paper

The paper intends to suggest ways of raising awareness for dormant information needs: first by recognising that this often happens, and secondly by considering various means of addressing this.

Brief review of gaps, information needs, and stakeholders’ awareness

Gaps can be on the level of factual knowledge (cognitive information needs) such as knowing about cancer genetics or side effects of diseases or treatments, or the danger of combining treatments; emotional knowledge such as coping, adapting and grieving (affective information needs), and physical knowledge such as stress-relief and adjusting to the loss of a body part (psychomotor knowledge).

Healthcare professionals are not always aware of their patients’ information needs (Fourie, 2008). In communicating with patients/families and in providing information they are influenced by their training and perceptions of what patients/families should know and how such information should be shared. There are thus a number of problems: (1) patients/families do not always realise a gap in their knowledge and that they need information; thus they do not ask questions or seek information; (2) healthcare providers do not always realise that patients/family members do not recognise gaps in their knowledge and thus do not ask questions; (3) healthcare providers do not always realise that their provision of information may not stimulate and enable patients/families to recognise what they need to know; (4) patients/family members do not always realise that their ability to recognise information needs may differ for each person, and that this can be turned into a benefit (Clayton, Butow & Tattersall, 2005; Fourie, 2008). More detail can be offered by a content analysis of literature on the information needs of patients/families as well as the awareness of healthcare professionals on patients information needs. The paper will focus on breast cancer. Such evidence should be sufficient to support the perception that healthcare professionals depend too much on patients’ and families’ abilities to ask questions and their awareness of needs (Fourie, 2008).

Information literacy training

Information literacy training for healthcare providers as well as patients/families can address problems such as not recognising information needs. It can raise awareness for the fact that recognition of a need for information is a pre-requisite for asking questions, and that means need to be identified to avoid dormant and unrecognised information needs in healthcare contexts – as far as possible. In fact, it needs to raise awareness for the need to guide people in recognising knowledge gaps, and thus needs for information.

In information literacy training it is standard to stress the ability to recognise a problem and the need for information (i.e. realising the gap between what is known and what needs to be known). People are advised to describe a problem in terms of a question or statement, then to identify the main concepts and keywords and how to combine these, then selecting appropriate information resources and search strategies to explore these, etc. If people do not realise a problem or a gap in their knowledge, none of these can materialise.

Apart from healthcare professionals not always admitting patients’ and families inability to recognise their information needs and to express this clearly, they often are unable to recognise their own needs for information, and may experience many barriers in honing their own information skills. This is also evident from a report by Fourie and Claasen-Veldsman (2011) where they report on nurses expressing deep concern for the suffering of patients and patients’ interest in using the Internet, but not linking this to needs for information on supporting patients in using the Internet appropriately to find information.

Suggestions on means to raise awareness of information needs

Various means can be used to raise awareness of information needs such as browsing resources such as websites and encountering information, as well as abbreviated visual means of sharing information. Examples will be offered of what can be noted with regard to breast cancer when considering: browsing recommended websites, using mind maps, visualisation as abbreviated resources of information, narratives of other people’s experiences, fiction e.g. as in stories, movies and popular TV programmes, content analysis of blogs, and patients’ discussion lists.

Conclusion

Serious complaints are raised about patients’ and families’ information needs that are not met. One reason is their inability to recognise such needs and to adequately explain these. Information literacy programs should prepare healthcare professionals to be alert to this problem and to explore all possible means to raise patients’ and families’ awareness of their needs, and especially situations where information may help them. This should also feature in any attempts of patient education and in communication with patients/families.