Effective Communication And Health Literacy In A Culturally Safe Environment

The Impact of Health Literacy on Quality and Safety

Discuss about the Effective Communication and Health Literacy for Safe Environment.

Health literacy has been understood be a shared function of the individual and social factors that are important for communication and evaluation of the skills of people in their interaction with the individuals. There has been discussions on the communication process and relationships that persist between the healthcare providers and the consumers who are considered an important part of the healthy literacy environment that includes the elements of decision making process and incorporation of the information to the needs of the individual. The aim of this paper is to discuss about the philosophy underpinning effective communication and health literacy in a culturally safe environment. The target audience to whom this will be applicable is the new staff at the workplace.

The term health literacy refers to the impact of health on the quality and safety through determinant of health and healthcare. Although there has been an increasing awareness regarding health and its attributes, however thee is not fixed definition about health (Yap,  Reavley & Jorm, 2012). There have been debates on whether health literacy is understood to be on the individual level or whether it incorporates. Another understanding pertaining to health literacy is that it has complex connotations and there multiple skill categories and tools that are used in health literacy (Mårtensson & Hensing, 2012). There has been debates over the definitions of healthcare literacy where it has been understood something that comprises of a theory of behaviour change. There were a set of early definition on healthcare that underscore the notion on the ability of the consumers and patients to have print-based information. One of the decisions related to the health literacy is that there should be the working knowledge of health by an individual, they should have the knowledge to make use of technology, make use of social media interaction and know about social networking, possess the self efficacy and have the necessary motivation of for fostering political action regarding the different kinds of health issues. (Parket et al., 2014).  In certain health literacy frameworks, the ability to navigate health services have been subsumed. According to the view of some scholars health literacy refers to the ability and awareness of an individual to explore and explain the differences between the different culture of the public and the health system. The notion of health literacy further indicates the awareness and ability of an individual to reduce the power imbalance that exist between the public and the health system. The most commonly used understanding of health literacy it is a tool for attaining deeper control on health and the large

Debate Over Health Literacy Definitions and Attributes

It has been found that there has been a steady increase in health literacy in the past few years. Studies have shown that there is a correlation between health literacy and the access of patients to the healthcare facilities. It has been found that patients with low health literacy experience less understanding about the given situation of their health, makes poor use of the healthcare facilities and services available to them and have poorer adherence to the medical regimes. In addition, they have poor understanding of the complex nature of their health problems. They also face the problems of low understanding the utilization of preventive services and have poorer overall health status.

Rationale for the presentation- As discussed in the introductory section this essay, the rationale behind this presentation is to conduct a staff orientation at anew workplace where they would  explained about the philosophy embedding the  effectiveness of communication and health literacy in a culturally sae health environment. According to the Calgary Charter, health literacy is applicable to all individuals including the consumers of healthcare. Health literacy propagates the importance of valuing one’s health both through biomedical and aboriginal knowledge (Slewa-Younan et l., 2014). This underscore the integration that is required in dealing with health cases infusing the principles of modern scientific medicine and the intricate knowledge of the localized and traditional medicine. Some of the pertinent themes in health literacy are reduction of health disparities that relates to the pluralistic and culturally diverse populations. Healthcare professionals can be taught to become competent and will enable in addressing the unequal information shared between the healthcare provider and the patient. Health professionals have the ability to reduce health disparities and discrepancies in the access to healthcare (Lambert & Keogh, 2014). This can be accomplished through the culture possessed by the health professionals as well as biases and assumptions pervasive in the health profession. Another way this could be accomplished is through the appropriate communication skills and the utilization of the resources and addressal of the cultural differences, power dynamics, hierarchy, and the low level of health literacy. It has been found that there is a lack of emphasis between health literacy and the health communication in the existing body of literature. Although effective communication and health are closely associated with each other, yet they are distinct concepts. Effective communication concerns with the process of exchange of the of information in which health literacy is used as set of skills and abilities. On the other hand, health literacy has been understood as an intrinsic a part of communication. Effective communication has been perceived as a mediator between the within the healthcare service provider and the patient interaction relating to health literacy and the outcomes of health. Scholars have identified certain elements that are  important for effective communication.. This includes speaking, listening and negotiating the dimensions of various kinds of healthcare with the patients. There is an emphasis on the skills of the individual in terms of the critical assessment of the plight of the patient. It has be stated by scholars that one may possess the necessary attributes to master the art of effective communication but the same person may not have the adequate knowledge about the different aspects of health (Sørensen et al., 2012). Therefore, communications skills are not directly proportional to health literacy. Scholars have emphasized on a the adoption of a conceptual model of health literacy that integrates the culture, language, social capital for the appropriate and holistic conceptualization of health literacy. It has been seen that there is an increasing move for the integration of cultural competence and health literacy. However, scholars have warned there should not be any obfuscation of the health literacy and effective communication. Therefore, it is important to incorporate health literacy and communication owing to the interdependence and intersection between the concepts of cultural competence with health communication and health literacy.

Correlation Between Health Literacy and Access to Healthcare

However, there are limitations of the definition of health literacy. This includes the assumption of the socio-cultural contexts of the western societies and decontexualization therefore, missing the nuances. It’s important to incorporate culture and language to understand their role in health literacy. It is important to view health literacy as a dynamic process rather than static process (Hibbard & Greene, 2013). Health literacy comprises of a broad range of definitions and has immense scope for those interested in health studies and medical sociology. Health literacy measures have initially been text based. In the recent literature oral communication skills have been considered as an integral component of healthcare literacy. Another type of measurement that has been included in the health literacy assessment tools is system navigation.  According to scholars these measures are insufficient in the commonly used screening tools ti evaluate the relationship between communication and information between the systems and the healthcare professionals. There have been suggestions from the scholars that different tools should evaluate different kinds of communication skills, the health care system and the larger society. However, these has been criticism regarding the measurement of health literacy at the individual level of the consumer. The measurement of health literacy in the clinical settings is important for the maintenance of effective communication. Another group of scholars argue that effective communication need to be embraced in case of a clinical setting to eliminate the barriers that pose hindrance in accessing barriers (Fischhoff, 2012). Recently, it has been found that a number of literacies adopt a framework that is crucial in understanding health literacy. In order to address health literacy in a coordinated manner it is important to embed the values if health literacy in the organizational practises and policies and also in the high-level systems.     

Conclusion

Therefore based on the above findings it can be stated that effective communication are both useful. Effective communication and health literacy are interconnected but a healthcare practitioner needs to look after the welfare hence thee are consternations and disagreements. Heath literacy is a dynamic process and is not static. Measurement have used to find out the IQ and EG f enact of the patients. The authors have framework for intervening into the process of health and medicine. Healthcare professional are trained to become empathic and manifest benevolence in transferring the information to the others. People who are located at the lower rungs of the hierarchy lack health literacy and therefore, are deprived and discriminated from the healthcare services.

References

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