Health Educator

What Are Health Educators?

Health educators are experts who explain and teach you about health-related topics. They can have a variety of backgrounds. For example, they can be teachers, medical technicians or social workers. Healthcare providers like doctors, nurses and pharmacists also educate people about their health.

Health educators can teach and guide you on:

• Your own healthcare and medical needs
• Ways to prevent and manage chronic conditions
• How to find reliable medical information, understand it and then use it
• How to care for loved ones with specific medical needs

Health educators can tailor what they teach you to your specific needs and priorities. That’s also why it’s so common for healthcare providers to act as health educators as part of their everyday job. And if you need the help of a health educator, your primary care provider or another healthcare provider you see is usually your best first step toward finding one.

What does a health educator do?

Healthcare and medicine are complex. Medical professionals go through years of education and training to learn. But there’s still too much out there for one person to know it all and keep up with the latest advances.

That’s why health educators are so important, no matter what your background is. They can help you improve your health literacy. That’s how well you read and understand health and medical information.

What are some examples of things health educators can teach me?

Health educators can teach you many things you need to know. Some examples include:

• How to recognize symptoms: The ability to recognize changes in your health is important. Such changes can be warning signs that you need care. One example is knowing that chest pain can be a heart attack symptom. If you don’t know that, you might not know that you need emergency care.
• Understanding and following instructions: This might be after a clinic visit or a surgery, or in other situations. Following the instructions gives you the best chance of recovering and avoiding any complications.
• Medications and supplements you take and why you take them: This can help you avoid dangerous interactions or side effects.
• How to read a prescription label: You need to know what dose to take, when to take it and how to take it properly. You also need to know how to store your medicines the right way. 

What can a health educator help you with?

Health education can benefit you in many ways. For example, it can help you learn about:

• Relevant medical conditions: It’s important to understand any condition you have or that you have a family history of. This involves learning what the condition is and how it may affect you.
• Treatment options and recommendations: Many times, you can choose from more than one treatment option. And understanding the options can help you pick the one that is most likely to match your wants and needs.
• How to follow provider guidance: If your provider prescribes a medicine, health educators can help you understand how and why to follow the instructions on the prescription label. If you don’t understand how to take a medicine, your treatment might not work right. Or you could even make yourself sicker.
• How to protect yourself: For example, if a provider prescribes a medicine you’re allergic to, you need to tell them that. But if you don’t understand the allergy or how it affects you, you may not know to tell your provider. That could lead to you accidentally having an allergic reaction. Health educators can teach you things that help you avoid events like this.