09/30/09
The 6 articles in the September 30, 2009 OJIN topic, Promoting Health Literacy: Strategies for Healthcare Providers are devoted to health literacy, a concern that nurses, and all healthcare providers, can do so much about. These articles, described below, emphasize individual, person-centered health literacy efforts and recognize the broader issues of health literacy within our society; they will be of value across healthcare roles and settings seeking to address this common, yet elusive, and often hidden, problem of low health literacy.
"Health Literacy: Challenges and Strategies,” by Nichole Egbert and Kevin Nanna provides a strong introduction to the topic of health literacy, including historical development, common definitions, and challenges of obtaining, processing and understanding, and using health information.
"Assessing and Addressing Health Literacy ” by Sandy Cornett offers a practical discussion on providing clear, effective health communication. Cornett outlines health literacy content to include in a nursing curriculum and provides detailed guidelines for creating an open, shame-free environment to help patients navigate the often confusing healthcare system.
“Enhancing Written Communications to Address Health Literacy,” by Gloria Mayer and Michael Villaire recognizes that most health education materials are written at a reading grade level too high for many adults. Mayer and Villaire provide plain and understandable guidelines for developing patient education materials and examine various readability tests.
“Understanding Cultural and Linguistic Barriers to Health Literacy,” by Kate Singleton and Elizabeth Krause examines the interplay among language, culture, and health literacy for patients who are from diverse backgrounds, describing how these individuals and groups often carry extra health burdens. The authors review relevant cultural concepts and discuss health literacy issues for disparate groups across the four domains of health literacy, namely the navigational, clinical, public health, and preventive domains.
“More than Words: Promoting Health Literacy in Older Adults” by Carolyn Speros provides an overview of the significant impact low health literacy can have on older adults and advocates for a patient-centered approach based on cognitive, physical, and psychological capabilities. She offers examples of customized teaching that are based on participants’ capabilities and adjusted for possible deficits.
“Promoting Health Literacy through Storytelling,” by Vivian Day describes how to incorporate storytelling into teaching activities so learners are personally engaged and provides examples to illustrate how storytelling can both help experiential learners better understand how to care for their health conditions and also motivate them to do so.
ANA members have the first opportunity to access the most recent OJIN topic. When each new topic is posted, the previous topic becomes available to all viewers. This topic will be available after January 31, 2010. Go to Current Topic...
The journal editors invite you to share your response to this OJIN topic. We welcome submission of manuscripts and letters to the editor for additional dialogue regarding innovation and implementation related to nursing technology, a dialogue that is necessary for our personal and professional future.
ANA members have the first opportunity to access the most recent OJIN topic. When each new OJIN topic is posted, the previous topic becomes available to non-members. The May 31, 2009 topic, Nursing Technologies: Innovation and Implementation is now accessible to all readers.