Question:
Discuss about the Importance Of Health Literacy.
Literacy is the ability to read, write, and interpret information. Health literacy involves the ability of an individual to acquire, interpret and understand information on health to help in making critical health decisions. Communication is the process through which information is conveyed from one point to another or from one person to another through different channels. Effective communication is important in our day to day lives, because it is through effective communication that we are able to listen, learn and understand. Effective communication can make an illiterate person understand any information being conveyed. One of the major problems in Australia that increase the rate of chronic diseases and illness is illiteracy. The fact that a patient is not able to read, write and interpret medical information can adversely affect the patients’ health in various ways (Hernandez, 2013). . It is the responsibility of both the patient and the doctor or nurse to make sure that each of them is on the same track in order to help the patient understand what is expected of them when it comes to medication and self-management. Effective communication goes a long way in helping a patient in understanding their Illness, what is expected of them during their treatment and how to take their medication.
There are different effective intervention strategies which can help improve the illiterate people in being at par with their doctors or nurses in charge this includes; using oral literacy. People come from different backgrounds and ethnic group, this is the same even in patients who have chronic illness. They have different backgrounds, and their level of literacy is also different. Oral literacy is one of the most important strategies that should be put in place to help the patients understand the doctor and nurses. Oral literacy is a basic need for better communication between the patient and the doctor, the patients need to get the information as intended, and they also need to understand the information given to them. The doctors are advised to use a plain language without jargons which can be clearly understood by the patient. They also need to speak slow and fluently explaining to the patient what they are suffering from, the kind medication and treatment prescribed to them and how they should take the medication. Doctors should create a more interactive conversation to understand the patients concern as well so that the patients need can be looked into during their conversation, and through this the patient will absolutely understand their conditions and the reason for their medication.
The second strategy is print literacy, print is one of the most common ways for doctor-patient communication within the system. There is a high possibility that most patients do not understand most of the prescriptions written by the doctor and directions written on their medication. Print literacy helps the patient to understand doctors’ prescriptions among other things (De Chesnay & Anderson 2012). People who are illiterate will barely understand most of the writings on their medication and this can lead to an overdose or underdose. It is important that when the doctor is writing they should use big fonts, clear words with plain language. They should include appropriate diagrams for illustrations, the writing should be straight to the point explaining for example what time to take medications and the writing should avoid errors because this might bring confusion to the patient. Numeracy is an element of health literacy referring to the ability to understand numbers. It is important to put in place a system that helps the patents understand numerical information since this is always part of print as a means of passing important information to the patient regarding his or her health. Illiterate patients cannot understand most of the numeric information that are written on their medication or prescriptions. Most of these patients whose suffer from chronic diseases are old, tired and just need great care and time to adjust, most of them cannot perform even a simple calculation. These are some of the reasons as to why it is even hard for them to determine when their next appointment schedule is.
As a nurse student, I have learned is that it’s not good to make an assumption about a patient with chronic illness, thinking that they are aware of what they are doing at health facilities. This is important because it will help me make sure they understand their conditions, treatment, and medication by giving them the right information that they need and allowing them to ask as many questions for this will give them the knowledge for their conditions and the responsibilities required of them. The second idea is that, when dealing with a chronically ill patient, it is important that the information is tailored in a way that it conveys the important information regarding the patients’ health and at the same time educating the patient about their health. The information should be easy to read, understand and interpret for the purpose of a positive feedback (Schwartzberg, Vangeest, & Wang 2005). Another idea learned is the importance of motivation, patients with chronic illness are very vulnerable and they need great care. When attending to patients with chronic illness it’s important that they are motivated to take their medication, to come for checkups on the required date and to make them understand that their condition is manageable but it’s upon them to take care of themselves too and to have a positive attitude. The way you treat a patient can either help them in improving their health conditions or can make their conditions worse because they may decide to leave medication and take it only when they feel unwell or skip the checkup dates because they won’t see the essence of it.
Health literacy is a major concern because of its effects both the literate and the illiterate. Due to low health literacy, there are a lot of problems that many people incur due to their low level of literacy. In these scenarios, the first observation made is that there are people who can read and write but the cannot understand the medical terms and this leads to the misunderstanding of how to take their medication and this can lead to adverse effects on the patient. It is necessary that health literacy education is important to all people across the board. Another observation made is that most doctors give medication to the patients without explanation as to why they need the medication, what are they ailing from, and what is the medicine meant to treat and for how long. The medics leave the patients to figure out all these questions on their own and this is the reason as to why some patients won’t take medication because they do not know what they are suffering from and the kind of medication given to them (Pleasant, Greer, & Zarcadoolas 2013). If the doctors could clearly explain this kind of issues then they would increase the chances of making their patients aware of why they need medication. The last observation made is that there are patients who cannot read well and write. This group of patients has a big problem on reading the labels on their medication and this often leads to underdose or overdose, or even poor timing of the medication. These patients do not know the time intervals for their medication because it’s written in a medical language that is complicated and they can barely understand. The doctors should, therefore, write in a layman language that anyone can understand (Bastable, Gramet, Jacobs, & Sopczyk 2011). Another observation related to this is the fact that some patients cannot write and on their visits to the doctor they are given forms to fill and this is a turn off for those who cannot read and write and because they do not want to show their level of illiteracy they prefer going back without getting assistance.
Brown bag medication review is when the patients are encouraged to bring in all their medications for review. Brown bag medication is of importance when dealing with patients with chronic illness because it will help in understanding the patients’ progress and the kind of medication they are taking. Brown bag medication is important for establishing the reasons as to why the patient, for example, could not be responding to the medication. Secondly, this review is of help to the patient because if in case of a new symptom the doctor can easily detect the cause of the symptom and find an alternative. Lastly, this medication review helps the doctor in checking if the patient is taking their medications correctly as directed.
Talk-ask-talk way of communication is important because it gives room for interactions with the patient to understand how well the patient is conversant with their illness, medication and the condition among others things. Teach-back method in this case is important because during the interactions the patient is able to learn a few things, and with teach back method the patient is given time to say it back what he is being told and this is one of the most effective methods of making sure that the patient has completely understood what he is being told or advised by the doctor to do.
Nurse navigator is a registered nurse who has an in-depth understanding of the health system and responsible for providing the needed services for patients with chronic illness who require a high level of clinical care (Bastable, 2014). Navigators can help the low health literate patients who cannot read and right by helping the patients find the right service, at the right time and the right place. Secondly, they should help the patients by creating an interactive communication with the patient to get the patients concern and answer, this makes the patient free to ask anything they are concerned about. Lastly, the navigators should educate the patients so that they can understand their conditions and other issues of concern through this the patient can be able to make clear decisions hence improving their health outcome. In conclusion, advocating for health literacy is very vital, since it is the only key through which people are able to understand their health conditions, reasons for them to take their medication as prescribed and this will definitely change the worldview of the patients with chronic illness.
References
Bastable, S. B. 2014. Nurse as educator: principles of teaching and learning for nursing practice. Burlington, MA, Jones & Bartlett Learning.
Bastable, S. B., Gramet, P., Jacobs, K., & Sopczyk, D. L. 2011. Health professional as educator: principles of teaching and learning. Sudbury, MA, Jones & Bartlett Learning.
De Chesnay, M., & Anderson, B. A. 2012. Caring for the vulnerable: perspectives in nursing theory, practice, and research. Burlington, MA, Jones & Bartlett Learning. https://www.r2library.com/Resource/Title/144963592X.
Hernandez, L. M. 2013. Health literacy: improving health, health systems, and health policy around the world : workshop summary.
Pleasant, A., Greer, D. S., & Zarcadoolas, C. 2013. Advancing health literacy: a framework for understanding and action. San Francisco, Calif, Jossey-Bass. https://rbdigital.oneclickdigital.com.
Schwartzberg, J. G., Vangeest, J., & Wang, C. 2005. Understanding health literacy: implications for medicine and public health. [Chicago, Ill.], American Medical Association.
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