Literacy In Health Care

From Baker’s study on health literacy (2006), it depicted the health literacy as active and dynamic status which gives the consumers the essential abilities to act effectively within the healthcare system. The patient’s levels of health literacy would vary related on different circumstances whether it is relied on the health professionals at the medical procedure, the shared information that contains the type of medical diagnosis of the patient and the signs and symptoms of medical condition that patient may experience.

I have learned that there are four domains of health literacy. Fundamental, Scientific, Civic, and Cultural. All four components play a role in understanding overall comprehension of health information. Not only for patients but for healthcare professionals. I didn’t consider one’s ability to read, write, and speak English will have an impact on the community. For instance, inability to read or understand simple discharge instructions will hinder one’s ability to make an informed decision about one’s health. Simple discharge instructions such as how to take care of self or even how to avoid the spread of illness. Consequently, this can have an impact on the community.

Health literacy empowers individuals with knowledge and understanding regarding health information enabling them to make informed decisions about their health care. Health literacy affects people of all ages, race and ethnicity, education levels, income and languages spoken. All individuals deserve the right to have access to accurate, easy to understand, reliable, valid information to make informed decisions about their healthcare. According to Baur (2011), Health literacy is the extent in which individuals acquire, assimilate and comprehend health information and services to make informed health decisions. This has become a public health mission in the Healthy People agenda of 2010 and 2020 (Baur, 2011, p.63).

Going through life we learn and grow differently in literacy. As a young child, I started off my reading by looking at pictures and then grew into more difficult literacy. Trying to comprehend how much reading would impact my life in the future when I was little, was something I never understood. Being in high school now, I have learned how much reading and writing would impact me and how many opportunities it could provide for me. Since I was that child who could have cared less about my literacy, I soon became the child that got so worked up if I wasn’t as superb as others in reading. Throughout my childhood, my literacy has had its ups and downs, but now being in high school I have worked hard in my literacy which has allowed me to take

My first experience to literacy came as a young adult. I have always been reluctant with my education, because of the family problems I experienced growing up. The harsh treatment our family received growing up made it very difficult to study in school, my body was physically in class but my mind was not. The trials and tribulations I went through growing up as a kid continued throughout my teenage years. Dropping out of high school I believe brought upon literacy difficulty. At the age of twenty-three, I finally had enough of feeling undereducated. Living in my mother’s basement with no job and an 8th grade education, the walls started to close in on me as my frustration became greater by the minute.

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

What if every other person that received help from a healthcare provider left the health facility and did not comply with anything the provider told them? The patient did not take the medication as directed, if at all, did not follow-up in 2 weeks to ensure adequate treatment and never improved, or did not care for their surgical wound, leading them to being hospitalized for sepsis. What is the point in going to seek help, if the patient is not going to do what it takes to improve? As emphasized in the American Medical Association (AMA) video, nearly one-half of Americans do not have the skills to overcome the barriers to health literacy (2010). “Health literacy is the ability to read, understand, and act on health information.” (AMA, 2010) Taking this into consideration, who is to blame, the patient who did nothing the provider told them to, or the provider who did not ensure understanding of the information given to the patient nor emphasize the importance of compliance and risks? Patients do not visit healthcare facilities to cause themselves more confusion and continued suffering, they are seeking advice and assistance, trusting that the provider will be able to deliver care in the most appropriate manner no matter the circumstances. Although many of these health literacy barriers are out of the provider’s control, such as the inability to read or memory impairment, this does not denote that there are not many ways to overcome

Health literacy affects everyone. In life, everyone wants to take care of their health and stay healthy. Health literacy is a very important skill needed by everyone to be able to find, understand and use health care information. Also health literacy is not only needed when someone goes to visit a doctor, but it is also very essential for taking care of you every day. Health literacy helps to protect your health by preventing the health problems from proper understanding of the disease and treatment plan. It also helps to better manage the health related problems and unexpected situations.

Have you ever had a really difficult time in life and it turned out for the better? Learning to read and write was a process that with my mother, growing up in poverty and being bullied at school really shaped me into the person I am today. My mother had me at a young age and even though everyone told her she shouldn’t have, she went through with me and my brother's birth before the age of twenty. I remember very little about my brother’s birth since he was born sixteen months after me. You can imagine the stress and obstacles my single mother faced. Yet, somehow, she knew how to be the perfect mother to me and my brother and not only made sure we had everything we needed she made sure we used our minds from a young age making us literate before we went to school.

Literacy is not just the ability to read a book or write your own name, it is a more complex problem that an astounding part of the American population faces. According to the National Adult Literacy Survey of 1993 (NALS), which measures literacy levels in three ways: prose literacy, document literacy, and quantitative literacy, 27 percent of people that took this literacy test have a level 2 literacy level; on a scale of 1 to 5, 5 being literate (Perez & Luquis, 2014). Consequently, these levels indicate less than a seventh grade education. Today’s information and technological society proves daunting for even the most literate of people who face problems dealing with our health care system. Providing critical

The authors, Racquel Ingram and Donald Kautz are both critical care nurses addressing the importance of understanding health literacy in their 2012 article titled “Overcoming Low Health Literacy”. In this article, they provide a guide as to understanding the meaning of low health literacy, some statistical data pertaining to adult literacy in general, models of health literacy and their application in two case studies, and some common health literacy problems. The setting focuses strictly on its application in a Critical Care Unit (CCU) and how improving health literacy in both the patient and family help improve the patients outcomes.

I picked nursing homes, hospitals, and stethoscopes over riding my bike and playing outside. Every weekend, I accompanied my Mom, a Nursing Director, to her job at a nursing home. I knew the drill. My Mom always said, “Okay, sit here and wait for me.” I thought to myself, “Why would I stay in this boring room?” At times I would patiently wait there to make my Mom happy, but a majority of the time my curiosity got the best of me. I roamed the halls, observing patients, proudly carrying my toy stethoscope. The hallways were filled with chatter of sophisticated medical terminology. I occasionally found pride in myself because I would recognize a word like “blood pressure” and knew what it meant. In that moment of time, I wanted

With an increase in the number of new prescriptions hitting the market and the growing number of patients taking prescription medications, patient health literacy becomes a rising problem. Approximately ninety percent of Americans currently take prescription or over-the-counter medications; however, patients that have an inadequate health literacy level are more likely misinterpret or suffer adverse drug effects due to a lack of understanding. (7) These possible adverse drug effects could also potentially increase the number of hospitalizations, thus raising health care costs. One study suggested that over half of the documented emergency department visits could have been avoided had the patient been more health literate. (4) If the patients involved would have been better educated about the side effects, contraindications, and drug interactions by their pharmacist or primary care provider, then emergency room visits and/or hospital admittance could have been prevented.

The concept of health literacy has been a widely researched topic within the field of health for quite some time. The importance of health literacy is multi faceted, and an important aspect for not only an individual’s health, but for community health, and for the understanding of health professionals as well.