The Skin Cancer Foundation (2018) gives insight into the different ways in which a patient could detect any certain changes in the skin that would be a sign of skin cancer. It encourages patients to see a doctor if any of these changes are present for early detection. According to the Free Readability Consensus Calculator (2018), this simply guide is quite challenging to read. Various different readabilities are calculated, and it gains a fairly difficult to read rating on the Flesch Reading Ease scale, and is between the 9th and 11th grade on any other scale. This means that it is best for those who are 15 to 17 years of age or have a reading age at or above this level.
The patient in question is a 35-year-old woman who is concerned about a lesion on her shoulder. Her age indicates that she should be able to read this text with ease, but some patients do not have the required education or reading age for these texts. As the text is fairly challenging and no other information is given about the patient, it might be best to get a different resource with a lower reading age that is easier to read. It is worth pointing out that the online guide does come with images that help to illustrate the instructions given, which could mean that they are easy to understand for those who do not have the required reading level. Taking all of this into account, I would tentatively recommend this resource to the patient but be aware that she might have questions or difficulties about how to check for skin cancer. I would also not recommend it to any patient that has difficulties with reading that could make it difficult for them to understand the process of checking for skin cancer.
- Step by Step Self-Examination – SkinCancer.org. (2018). Retrieved from https://www.skincancer.org/skin-cancer-information/early-detection/step-by-step-self-examination
- Text Readability Consensus Calculator. (2018). Retrieved from http://www.readabilityformulas.com/freetests/six-readability-formulas.php
