When nurses encounter a new patient and evaluate medical issues, they must also assess their health literacy. As a starting point, this helps them understand how to best inform the patient to ensure they receive the most appropriate care.
In the United States, approximately one-third of the population has reduced health literacy, notes the Health Promotion Journal of Australia. With the rise of misinformation, gaining insight into patients’ engagement with their health and medical concepts can reduce care disparities and improve outcomes. But first, nurse educators must help student nurses learn to gather and apply this information effectively.
What Is Health Literacy?
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), health literacy is “the degree to which individuals have the ability to find, understand, and use information and services to inform health-related decisions and actions for themselves and others.”
Specifically, health literacy seeks to improve the health of individuals and communities by ensuring they have the information to make personal health decisions. Health literacy is a prominent goal of modern professional nursing practice and a key contributor to public health initiatives, prompting nursing organizations to encourage nurses to gain the skills to maintain and promote health literacy across various patient groups.
Integrating Health Literacy in Nursing Curriculum
Preparing students for nursing positions where they can determine the extent of a patient’s health literacy and effectively communicate medical information requires changes to the nursing curriculum. A revised curriculum might integrate health literacy principles throughout the coursework, with a dedicated focus on communication strategies tailored to diverse health literacy levels. Incorporating real-life scenarios and case studies into the curriculum allows nursing students to practice assessing and addressing health literacy challenges encountered in clinical settings.
Graduates of the William Paterson University (WP) online Registered Nurse (RN) to Master of Science in Nursing (MSN) – Nursing Education program establish these habits through classroom and clinical experiences. Courses like Theoretical Foundations for Nursing concentrate on how interdisciplinary theories impact community-based nursing practices. In the Classroom Teaching Strategies course, students explore various learning styles and the intersection of multicultural care and health literacy. Students also complete 45 supervised hours in teaching environments to further hone their skills.
Utilizing Digital Health Literacy Resources
Health literacy among patients and the general population varies, and healthcare professionals always search for new ways to enhance understanding and reduce disparities. Unfortunately, nurses may overestimate a patient’s health literacy, contributing to extended stays, complications and costs.
The rise in digital health literacy tools offers another path for nurses to assess patient understanding during face-to-face encounters. For example, the Brief Health Literacy Assessment (BHLS) is a three-question screening tool that seeks to “understand the individual’s confidence in completing medical forms, and any difficulties in writing or reading information,” the Health Promotion Journal of Australia reports.
Questions included on the BHLS are:
- How confident are you with filling out medical forms by yourself?
- How often do you have someone help you read hospital materials?
- How often do you have problems learning about your medical condition because of difficulty understanding written information?
Additionally, the Short Assessment of Health Literacy–Spanish and English (SAHL–S&E) is another screening tool for nurses to use with patients speaking English or Spanish. Consisting of 18 terms, nurses ask individuals to read each one aloud and choose the word closest to its meaning from a list of two options. The format verifies the subject’s comprehension and pronunciation of health-related terms and takes fewer than five minutes.
Gain Practical Experience and Skills to Support Health Literacy
Increasing health literacy among diverse groups is a central tenet of professional nursing. Digital health literacy assessment tools can streamline the collection of this information and pinpoint areas to tailor communication styles and interventions.
Nursing curricula should incorporate health literacy tools and concepts and offer opportunities for nursing students to apply those in real-world settings. Students can have these crucial experiences and develop relevant skills through WP’s online RN to MSN – Nursing Education program.
Learn more about William Paterson University’s online RN to MSN – Nursing Education program.
