Healthcare Literacy : A Major Challenge

Inadequate health literacy is a hidden crisis that is plaguing our nation. The ability to obtain, process, and understand health information needed to make informed health decisions is known as health literacy. The current health care system is biased on the notion that patients can fully comprehend health information and navigate through a complex health system. According to the 2003 National Assessment of Adult Literacy, only 12% of adults in the United States have proficient health literacy, while 30

this is low health literacy and reading skills. Overtime the communication between healthcare providers and patients has fundamentally become problematic. Healthcare providers often communicate using more medical terminology than patients can process, because patients are often preoccupied with their symptoms, which makes concentration more difficult. Although people at all literacy levels have difficulty understanding and using medical terminology, people with limited literacy skills are specifically

this paper is to illuminate and discuss healthcare vulnerabilities of the elderly rural population in Baker County, Florida and describe how the nursing profession can address these problems. Rural health has been a complex and multifaceted challenge for government and healthcare practitioners. The elderly who live alone in the county suffer from low socioeconomic status, low health literacy rates, declining cognitive and physical health and lack of healthcare facilities. The health status of this

having group members question and challenge my ideas have promoted me to think more in-depth and explore more closely about the topics. As of right now, there seems to be no issues with my group. Everyone participates in weekly discussions as well as writing the summary. Ideas and opinions are shared in a respectful manner

more (Budnitz, Lovegrove, Nadine, Richards, 2011). The lack of adherence to treatment is a widely recognized major problem both in the national and international scenarios. The average adherence rate of patients to treatment in developed countries is as low as 50%, whereas in developing countries this percentage is even lower (Ahmed, & Aslani, 2014 v.36). This poor patient outcome is the major health care issue in the United States and abroad because of the inability of the patient to understand and

than non-indigenous population, low level of health literacy has been considered as negative factor that impacting on the delivery of effective care and health professionals’ performances on medical treatment. With integrated health literacy program, culturally competent and appropriate communication at individual, systemic and organisational level would enhance health outcomes for consumer’s welfare. Most importantly, improved health literacy and effective communication skills would plays an important

(NI). The role of an NI is categorized as a non-clinical advanced nurse. The use of core competencies is an integral part of delivering standardized, measurable, quality healthcare in this day and age. Informatics is a relatively new addition to the APN, and nursing education but an integral part of delivering quality healthcare to patients. In 2010, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) mandated that nurses be key players in transforming and developing the infrastructure that is needed for efficient

Health Literacy Many individuals in the United States are struggling with reading, writing, and comprehension. This is not only necessary for daily life in today’s world, but imperative on the healthcare front. “Health literacy continues to be a major problem despite public and private efforts at all levels to address the issue through testing of literacy skills and development of literacy training programs” (Bastable, 2014, p. 256). “By focusing on health literacy issues and working together

Executive Summary Healthcare has undergone an unprecedented level of change over the past decade and this change ongoing due to various driving forces. These include changing demographics, increased competition, and growing number of ageing population, new technologies, ever rising costs, and a limited federal government role. The most important driving factor in this new era of the U.S healthcare is the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and the Electronic Health Record (EHR).Therefore, forecasting, the

This essay will discuss how cultural influences on health literacy and the role of the social worker in health literacy for individuals, whānau/aiga and communities. But firstly let’s define what health literacy means and what social determinant means. Health literacy has been defined as 'the capacity to find, interpret and use information and health services to make effective decisions for health and wellbeing’ (Ministry of Health, 2015). The social determinants of health are ‘the conditions in