Health Literacy And Patient Safety

Thank you for sharing your post. I agree, the success of patients requires accountability in health advocacy to increase health literacy. Advocacy challenges the public health leader to equip people / patients by the utilizing appropriate tools to successfully gain access to good heath. The emphasis on advocacy stresses the importance of preventive care, how and where to obtain health information, draw upon patient ability to ask questions, explain healthcare jargons, and empower the patients to become their own self- advocator (Mullin, 2011). As all these are the importance elements required to experience successful health.

A healthcare disparity is a limitation of healthcare availability, usually among a certain racial or socioeconomic demographic (Black, 2013). However, there are disparities that don’t have a specific demographic and affect the entirety of the United States, which are potentially most detrimental to the overall health of our country. One of those disparities is health literacy, or the exchange of complex information from the healthcare provider to the patient or client (Black, 2013). The lack of health literacy in America poses as a problem, especially with the chronically ill. Without proper knowledge of how to treat their illness and what to do when the disease process worsens or ameliorates can potentially cause millions of unnecessary hospitalizations,

In the United States alone there are 98,000 deaths per year caused by low quality health care (Ignatavicius & Workman, 2013, pg. 2). This statistic is disturbing because the errors that resulted in death were errors that were preventable. The intent of this chapter is to bring awareness to health care providers that are able to make a change in the quality of health care. In current practice patients are subjected to medication errors, preventable hospitalizations, premature death, and poor care provided due to racial, ethical, or low-income factors.

Health literacy has been demarcated as the measurement of the individual’s capacity to obtain, understand and process simple health information. It is needed to make satisfactory health decisions and determine services needed to treat or prevent illness. Health literacy requires knowledge from many topics, comprising the patient’s own body, appropriate conducts towards healthy results and the difficulties to understand the health system. It is influenced by many conditions such as our communication skills, age, socio-economic status, and cultural background, past experiences, educational level and mental health status (U.S. Department of

I really enjoyed reading your post. This is a good example of how poor health literacy can have a detrimental effect on a patient’s health. In a journal article the authors stated that health literacy is a strong predictor of a person’s health status (Schwatz et al., 2013). As seen in the AMA video and in the example that given here, it is clear that health literacy has a direct effect on one’s ability to make important healthcare decisions. Your example also reminds me that fear may play a big role in health literacy and one’s ability to make healthcare decisions. Making healthcare decision for yourself at time can be a daunting task no matter the culture, level or education, of background. It is so important that providers consider

Low literacy affects many individuals within today’s society. The amount of individuals that are unable to comprehend medication labels, medication regimens, and learning points from discharge teaching is shocking and result in further health related injuries (Koh et al., 2012). Nurses must take the important task of recognizing an individual literacy and comprehension ability before planning the individual’s care plan. The nurse must find out the ways an individual can receive information that

Health literacy has been a problem with our patients. The most vulnerable populations are the elderly, people with low-income levels, those with limited education, non-native speakers of English, those with chronic mental and physical health conditions, minority, and immigrant populations. Nurses have a great role in helping our patients succeed in understanding their health conditions. Nurses can be of great help in promoting health literacy. Sykes, Wills, Rowlands and Popple (2013) defined health literacy as the ability of individuals to access, understand, appraise, and apply health information. The three domains of health literacy, according to Bennett and Perkins (2012) as adapted from the (WHO) (1998) are functional health literacy, interactive literacy, and critical health literacy. Functional health literacy is basic reading and writing skills to be able to function effectively in a health context. Interactive health literacy is the used of more advanced cognitive and literacy skills to participate in health care. Critical health literacy is the ability to analyze critically and to use information to participate in action, to overcome structural barriers to health (p.14). The U.S. Department of Education published the findings of the National Assessment of Adult Literacy conducted in 2003. The result showed that 36 % of adults have basic or below-basic skills for dealing with health material, 52 %

A big problem today in health care for many people is health literacy. Health literacy is when a person is able to understand and process medical information they are given. Having low health literacy can affect how a person understands, and uses information about their health and health services (Batterham 2016). Low health literacy rates lead to big issues in communication. Limited literacy impacts health behaviors, decisions, and ultimately outcomes. Many people have low health literacy which leads to bad health outcomes. Research shows that low literacy is linked with the lower likelihood of people being able to manage their own health conditions, and less access to health care services which can lead to poor health outcomes. There are many reasons people have low health literacy, A lack of formal education and poor reading ability aren't the only causes of low health literacy. Low health literacy is associated with a number of things like poor engagement in health services, health knowledge, and overall health status. People with low health literacy may feel ashamed and try to hide it from professionals and family members. Most health care professionals are unaware of the level of health literacy their patient has. (Greenhalgh 2015) There is a need to identify individual health literacy needs and address how to work on solutions to benefit them and whole groups of people. Differences in health literacy

Many patients leave hospitals not fully healed or receive indequate care wherever they end up as with the case of Diana Turner. Diana Turner was a patient at Seaside Healthcare, a mental health facility in Lousiania. Ms. Turner was diagnosed with schizophrenia and was dependent on insulin. She was released into the care of Jefferson Healthcare who gave her an overdose of insulin which led to her death. Ms. Turner's daughter, Jamie Broussard, claims Seaside Healthcare should have known that Jefferson Healthcare wasn't qualified to administer insulin shots and filed a lawsuit against the health care organization. Ms. Turner's death was a result of medication error which can reduced through stragetic planning and attention to detail. Every medical facility has a moral obligation to avoid serious mistakes like medication error or negligence. The behavioral health center has an ethical responsibility to make sure accidents like medication error never happen. A way to ensure this would be to use technology and strict adherence to the rules and regulations. Procedures must be followed routinely so that it becomes habit to medical staff and they naturally follow protocol. Following a rountine makes the procedure easier and more natural to the staff similarly to the way a musician becomes more proficient at an instrument through practice and

I agree with you, the patients we treat should be just as responsible in their healthcare plans as we are in rendering treatment plans; however, providing care to non-adherent patients can place everyone at certain risk if not handled appropriately. The best way to protect the clinic and your staff when dealing with non-adherent patients is to not only document non-adherence issues identified, but also be specific as to which strategies were implemented to help the high risk patient in becoming compliant with proposed medical guidelines ( CMPA, 2013). The CMPA recommends that having open communication with patients is important and providers need to assess potential obstacles ( socio-economic, education levels, language barriers, and attitudes) early on; therefore, begin to provide available resources to assist the patient in hopes to mitigate foreseeable complications. Foreseeability entails "guarding against that which is probable and likely to happen, not against that which is only remotely possible" ( Pozar, 2016, p.

Incompetent health insurance literacy is a current problem that affects the ability for patients to make informed health care decisions, ultimately contributing to the escalating costs of health care in the United States.

Health literacy is defined as "The degree to which individuals have the capacity to obtain, process, and understand basic health information and services needed to make appropriate health decisions" (Michael K. Paasche-Orlow, 2010), the word Health literacy first appeared in 1974 in a paper which calls for “education standards for all grade school levels in USA” (Carolyn Speros, 2004) . Some recent works suggest that there is a relation between literacy, low health and premature deaths (Christina Zarcadoolas et al, 2005).

Health literacy is both a consumer and public healthcare issue. As a health care provider, it is not only my responsibility to ensure that you understand your health and what is going on

Health literacy is an essential determinant of health. Health literacy is the degree in which people have the ability to obtain process and understand fundamental health services and information in order to make informed health decisions throughout different phases of life. Patients who are better educated and informed about their options and who understand the evidence behind certain methodologies may have better health outcomes. On the other hand, low health literacy leads to many health problems. In fact, it seems to be the “single biggest cause of poor health outcomes” (Kickbusch 208). Low health literacy inhibits self-advocacy in health care settings. Patients with limited literacy cannot actively participate in health-related decisions

This will lead to more appropriate interventions being implemented and thereby reducing anxiety and promoting favorable outcomes.   Study Two › Dependent variable - level of health literacy › Independent variables - poor health outcomes and high hospitalization rates › Though not explicit, the hypothesis appears to me to be that the prevalence of limited health literacy in hospitalized patients is high and many patients rely on others to aid in their understanding of health information (Morris, Grant, Repp, MacLean, & Littenburg, 2011). › Low health literacy levels have a direct impact on poor health outcomes such as higher rates of hospitalization and