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Modern Nursing Practice

Decent Essays

Overview of PHRs and Their Significance Modern Nursing Practice Electronic PHRs hold a great promise in improving health in today’s society of evolving technology. In simple terms, PHRs are “internet-based tools that allow individuals to access, manage, and share their health information” (Czaja, Zarcadoolas, Vaughon, Lee, Rockoff, and Levy, 2015, p. 492) that come with various functionalities such as communicating electronically to health care providers, scheduling future appointments, requesting prescription refills, accessing health management information, and reviewing and tracking personal health information and laboratory results (Czaja, et al., 2015). With such a convenient program on the tip of the our fingertips, PHRs are believed …show more content…

For starters, it has been revealed in studies that PHRs are not conveniently accessible to vulnerable populations such as people with lower socioeconomic status, the elderly, people with disabilities, and minority populations (Czaja, et al., 2015). This is mainly due to limitations to access, difficulty navigating through the PHR websites, and health literacy (Czaja, et al., 2015). This poses a great deal of concern, as these vulnerable populations are generally more likely to need PHRs, as they pose a greater risk in developing chronic conditions. In terms of health literacy, it is imperative for patients to be fully engaged in their health, and to have access to good, reliable, trusted health information that they are able to comprehend and utilize (Czaja, et.al., 2015). In general, people with chronic conditions have overall more office visits, laboratory and procedural tests, and require more self-management needs (Krist, Woolf, Bello, Sabo, Longo, Kashiri, … Cohn, 2014). It is crucial that patients with chronic health conditions are able to access and understand information regarding their health conditions (Begoray, 2010). However, in order for PHRs to be effective, patients must be able to understand the information being provided, in other words, the information needs to be at an adequate level of health literacy appropriate to the patient

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