Patient Education And Health Care

Nurses work in a variety of health care settings including hospitals, clinics, nursing homes, schools, home care and community health. Due to this direct contact with a diverse patient population, nurses have a responsibility to play a critical role in developing, evaluating and propagating health information. As direct care providers, nurses assess patients for barriers to learning these include, age, language, cognitive issues, vision and hearing impairments or any other aspects that may impede the learning process. Nurses also assess patients for different learning styles. Some patients learn best by reading information and others prefer demonstration or writing information Younger patients may prefer watching audiovisual materials or interactive games to facilitate learning. As advocated for our patients, it is important for nurses to choose and evaluate the most appropriate delivery method of health care information. It is important for nurses and health care professionals to be able to evaluate websites and health related resources to ensure they provide reliable, quality health information that is based on medical research and not opinions from trusted sources (U.S. National Library of Medicine,

Most patients forget 40 percent of what their physicians told them (Lay, 1985) To improve compliance and retain information written educational and informational materials are “an important and potentially useful means to complement verbal instructions, assure that consent for tests and procedures is informed, and enhance compliance with treatment ‘ (Zion & Aiman, 1989). However, most often health care provides are faced with challenges to determine which written educational information materials are suitable for their patients. The purpose of this critique is using the Suitability Assessment of Material (SAM) to evaluate a written patient health educational material found in Society of Obstetrics and

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 %

This objective allows learners to know that they will be given tools to assess a patient’s health literacy as well as tools to create individual education plans specific to each patient’s need. The second objective states that staff will be able to assess a patient's learning style and incorporate those kinds of activities in their teaching of each patient. This learning objective sets the learner up for receiving instruction on how to assess a patient’s learning style and how to apply that knowledge to how to teach their patient. These objectives give the staff the tools to properly and adequately teach patients in a way that they can understand and apply what they have learned without fear of

When creating training modules for direct care staff members, using visual aids can provide information and explanations in an efficient, timely manner. Videos and visual aids are also easier for individuals to recall. 13

Sequist, Cullen, and Acton explain, “American Indians have nearly three times the national unemployment rate, and are less than half as likely to graduate from college” (2011, pp. 1967). With the low education levels that are common amongst this racial group, health care facilities need to make sure they are providing materials and teachings with appropriate fundamental literacy levels. In the book Advancing Health Literacy written by Zarcadoolas, Pleasant, and Greer, the authors describe fundamental literacy as, “The ability to read, write, speak, and work with numbers” (2006, pp. 56-57). As nurses, we need to be aware of others’ fundamental literacy to provide them with a sense of autonomy. If they are able to understand the materials they are reading, then they are able to make confident decisions about their care. In the nursing field, we provide many informational brochures, and are responsible for making sure our patients understand the plan of care. The text provided for our clients should be at an eighth-grade level, or personalized to each patient’s level. Nurses need to make sure they are conversing and explaining with no medical jargon, and allowing time for questions from the

Many individuals learn using a combination of styles. After considering all aspects of my patient I created my teaching plan to benefit visual, auditory, and tactile learners. My plan included an informative brochure that I created at a reading level suitable for my patient and visual aids consisting of tables such as “My Plate,” nutrition labels, and certain foods to avoid. The visual aids were necessary for my patient’s literacy level

Literacy is the ability to read and write, and it is based on different competency of individuals. Health literacy is a term that has been used in health literature for more than 35 years. In the United States, health literacy is used to explicate and describe the correlation between patient literacy levels and their ability to adhere with prescribed therapeutic regimens (Ad Hoc Committee on Health Literacy, 1999). Likewise, health literacy is also defined as the grade to which individuals have the capacity to obtain, process and understand basic health information and services needed to make appropriate health decisions (IOM, 2004) (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services [HHS], 2000). Health literacy is also influenced by individual literacy skills and individual capacities (Baker, Gazmararian, Sudano & Patterson, 2000). This study is important due to the high number of patients with difficulty interpreting and understanding common prescription drug labelled instructions. It can be inferred that

5) Education level questions can be helpful in determining a patient's literacy level. If there is a low level of literacy, the practitioner would have to customize a patient's session to meet the individual's

One of the many ways technology is improving PA and nursing is that it makes promoting patient education much easier. Patient education is when health professionals give information about how to alter your lifestyle to stay healthy. The traditional way of doing this was seeing your PA or nurse through doctor appointments, but now through technology there is a much faster and effective way of doing this.

This may affect patients' ability to read and understand instructions on medicine bottles, health educational materials, and insurance forms. For a culturally competent and diverse organization we must provide our patients the highest quality of care, regardless of their cultural background, ethnicity, race or level of literacy. (McCray, A. T.,2005)

Kathryn Ramos and Robyn Mayfield, in the education department at GHC, were contacted via email for methods/techniques to improve presentation of patient education. A meeting was scheduled. The following questions were communicated through email: Best practice for presenting education to adults especially 65 years and up; education materials available at GHC either written, internet, or otherwise; best practice for written information; other possible sources of information on education to the elderly (65 years and up); any other information you think would be beneficial.

Patient-specific education is designed to help medical professionals and patients make better decisions about their health and links to relevant information with extensive articles, videos, and images for the patient. (Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, 2014). Properly documented patient education can help organizations meet Meaningful Use Requirements (Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, 2012, 2016; National Learning Consortium, 2012) for reimbursement under Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services guidelines.

Appropriate patient education upon discharge from the emergency department (ED) is essential for effective patient care (Engel et al., 2009; Waisman et al., 2003). Patients are treated and released from the ED, often with complicated instructions they are expected to remember and comply with. The type of discharge education varies widely including verbal, non-verbal, written, illustrated and video information given to patients depending on the health professional and hospital policies. Inadequate discharge instructions can result in poor health outcomes and higher healthcare costs due to re-presentations to the hospital (Han, Barnard & Chapman, 2009; McCarthy et al., 2012; Palonen, Kaunonen, Helminen, & Åstedt-Kurki, 2015; Samuels-Kalow, Stack & Porter, 2012). One of the Ministry of Health primary targets for 2015-2016 was to have shorter stays in ED (Ministry of Health, 2015). There is now consensus that to achieve better health outcomes, an individual must be responsible for their own health through self-management. The question remains as to how to empower an individual to take this responsibility and moreover how to equip this individual with the appropriate skills often in situations of high stress and anxiety or when education levels may be low. Within this context, the notion of health literacy is paramount.