...As Americans, one may say that our biggest fear is the doctor’s office and the health care system. This is an appropriate statement due to the fact that a majority of Americans are health illiterate. So, what does it mean to be health literate? Health.gov definition on health literacy is as follows: Health literacy is the degree to which individuals have the capacity to obtain, process, and understand basic health information and services needed to make appropriate health decisions (1). The To give a perspective of how health illiterate Americans are almost nine out of ten Americans are considered to have Intermediate, Basic, or Below Basic health literacy (2). Why is this number so high? Is it because health information that is provided...
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...Assessing Health Literacy Kristin Greer The Christ College of Nursing and Health Sciences NUR150 March 28, 2011 Assessing Health Literacy When a registered nurse gets a new client, the nursing process begins with assessing the client. Initial assessment establishes a complete database for problem identification and care planning (Taylor, 2008). There are many issues that can come about if the initial assessment doesn’t consider all aspects of a client’s health including health literacy. United States Department of Health and Human Services defined the term health literacy as "the degree to which individuals have the capacity to obtain, process, and understand basic health information and services needed to make appropriate health decisions” (Cornett, 2009, p.2). Health literacy is a key concept for a nurse to understand to perform adequate client assessments to enhance client outcome. The client has the right to understand health literacy in order to obtain, use, and interpret their given medical instructions for the follow-up of their treatments. Baker argues that it is unfortunate that patients with limited health literacy are often considered noncompliant, when the real problem is a low level of health literacy (as cited in Cornett, 2009, p. 1). During care the nurse needs to obtain methods to assess the client’s health literacy level to address any low health literacy issues. Methods to assess a patient’s health literacy can be very simple but also can be technically...
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...Problem Statement Health literacy refers to a person’s ability to read and understand basic health care information so they are able to make informed decisions related to their treatment and care. Unfortunately, the Medicare population (comprised generally of those aged 65 and over) displays a large percentage of patients that are at or below the basic level of health literacy knowledge (see Appendix A for information regarding health literacy level by age for adult patients) making understanding complex prescription dosing regimens difficult and confusing. Low health literacy results in the inability of Medicare patients to understand their physicians’ instructions, especially for patients that are prescribed more than one medication. “Although...
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...adults with diabetes in the hospital setting and focuses on the related topics of health literacy and health education. The first section of this paper will discuss the relationship between these three topics. Next, this paper will outline goals of care, how nurses can work to ensure continuity of this care, and the transition of patients from the hospital setting to outpatient facilities. The World Health Organization defines health literacy as “the cognitive and social skills which determine the motivation and ability of individuals to gain access to, understand and use information in ways which promote and maintain good health” (WHO, 2015), making health literacy an important factor in the manage...
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...The cultural demographic groups that are most impacting the low literacy levels in healthcare are those individuals that are of Hispanic or Latin origin. This selective patient population consists of individuals that are from Mexico, South and Central America, Cuba and Puerto Rico. Therefore, these cultural characteristics are represented by their language, customs, and elements from their common ancestry (Caballerro, 2011). Moreover, many of these individuals stem from low-income families where adequate educational resources are often scarce and insufficient. This deficiency regarding receiving a proper education is reflected in the overall low literacy levels, as well as the excessively poor degree of health literacy that exists. Furthermore, the condition of poor health literacy not only affects the individuals domestic health status and their hospitalization experience, it creates and places an economic burden on select communities, as well as future...
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...Health literacy is defined as "how well an individual can read, interpret, and comprehend health information for maintaining an optimal level of wellness (Bastable, 2011, p. 231). It is important for health educator to provide information that can be understood by the population. Patients need to have a good understanding of their disease process and how to take their medications. Being able to follow instructions can speed up recovery and even save their lives. For this post, this author will be analyzing this website http://www.mayoclinic.org/. Nowadays, a lot of people uses the internet to learn and search for information about everything and especially about their health (Mano, 2015, p. 2489). http://www.maoclinic.org is one of the popular websites that can help find information about a disease process....
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...Low health literacy of patients leads to more hospitalizations, higher frequentingcy of emergency room visits, more false receipts of drugs/ prescriptions or less adherence and less use of screening (e.g. mammography) and preventions (e.g. influenza vaccination). This eventually results in an overall poorer general health status, as well as greater barriers to the use of adequate medical care. On the other hand, leads a greater involvement of patients in decision-making practice in health care to higher treatment satisfaction, improved adherence, less decision conflicts, improved health behaviors and a better global health status. In conclusion, due to better health literacy, a higher therapeutic safety and a decrease in unnecessary and medical...
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...Poor health literacy is a “silent epidemic” that challenges the functioning of the healthcare system. Low health literacy levels are associated with higher risks of hospitalization, inability to manage health conditions, poor health outcomes, and inability to seek proper treatment and understand options available (Palumbo, 2015). Those with inadequate health literacy are more likely to be poor and uninsured (Levy & Janke, 2016). According to a study done by Pati et al. (2010) concerning maternal health literacy, children whose mothers had poor health literacy were much less likely to participate in welfare programs they were eligible for. 12.7% of people in the United States are living in poverty (Semega, Fontenot, & Kollar, 2017), yet those...
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...Health Literacy in the Physician Practice By: Pauline Jakubiec, M.S., CPHRM Risk Management Consultant |Risk Advisory Solutions Health literacy is an important consideration according to the National Assessment for Adult Literacy when only 12% of adults are competent in health literacy. Nearly 9 out of 10 adults may lack the skills needed to manage their health and prevent disease. 14% of adults (30 million people) have below basic health literacy. 42% of these adults were more likely to report their health as poor. 28% were more likely to lack health insurance which now places them in the system (and in the office) than adults with proficient health literacy (Adult Literacy in America: A First Look at the Results of the National Adult...
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...Who doesn’t like user-friendly gadgets? I do. I want something that is easier to use and not hard to navigate around with. The concept of plain language is almost the same. Things get much harder for people who have very low health literacy when the language used are unfamiliar. These difficulties are pointed out on the CDC article which states that low health literacy can affect a person’s ability to locate health care providers and services, fill out health forms, and managing chronic diseases. This is why the use of plain language is so important since it makes it easier for most adults to communicate with providers and understand essential informations about their health. Plain language uses the words that are familiar to almost all of...
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...Associations Among Health Literacy and Outcomes in Pregnancy: A Systematic Literature Review Pregnancy and childbirth is often a woman’s first adult encounter with the health care system (Ferguson, 2008). Pregnant women need to have the necessary knowledge, skills, and attitude to best interact with the complex health care system. Outcomes such as low birth weight, premature delivery and breastfeeding rates have significant influence on a child’s health as well as increased cost to the system. The medical cost of a preterm birth is approximately three times more than a term birth. In 2005, the estimated cost associated with preterm birth was $26.2 billion when accounting for medical, educational and lost productivity costs (Institute of Medicine,...
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...Health Literacy: Key to increasing Patient Safety and Healthcare Quality Healthcare literacy is as essential as basic academic education. It enables one to understand the medical aspects of their body, along with pointing them in the correct direction regarding how to take care of it, illness prevention, and basic healthcare measures (Health Literacy, 2010). It acts as an important aspect in increasing patient safety and healthcare quality – both crucial elements of a healthcare organization and its functioning. However, a very alarming issue is that there exist a huge percentage of population, which has low health literacy, or is completely health illiterate. Although there have been various measures taken targeting this issue, there still...
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...to patient and the community. A professional nurse is require to provide care and information for patient and their families. Patient and families have the right to able to understand healthcare information which would empower them to make informed decisions about their care. Improving Health literacy in healthcare settings allow greater understanding of information and knowledge which would improve patient care. Being health literate is not only about reading and learning but is about understanding health information and using it to better one’s health. Health literacy is the ability for an individual to understand health information and services in order to make appropriate decisions regarding their health. (Sewell, 2015, p. 140). For example, retrieving medication and referrals, knowing when is time to take medication, interpreting medical terminology and comparing different insurance. Individuals who are health literate would know about their insurance coverage and can use the information to understand what services are available under that policy which would empower them to make informed decisions regarding health services, which can contribute to their overall health. Health literacy is not all about the ability of the patient to read, but...
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...Access to health care is limited in the rural setting so it becomes imperative to educate the patient regarding their illness, treatments, management, medications and when to seek medical assistance. Providing this information to the patient and educating them, the patient is better able to self-manage their condition. Kouame (2010), identified the key challenges facing the rural population as: low population density, limited to no services, disproportionate numbers of elderly, low-income, and minorities, social isolation and a high incidents of chronic illnesses. Health promotion is defined as the process of enabling people to increase control over and improved their health. Improving health literacy is key in empowering the rural community...
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...well-being. The special millennial issue contains 15 empirically minded articles by eminent authors in the field of academic psychology. This field marks a deliberate steering away from the dominant “disease model” of human functioning. In the disease model, clinical psychology had become almost exclusively a science about healing damage or controlling maladaptive impulses. In contrast, the primary purpose of positive psychology is to measure, understand, and then build human strengths and civic virtues, including hope, wisdom, creativity, courage, spirituality, responsibility, perseverance, and satisfaction. The special issue is divided into 4 sections: evolutionary perspectives, positive personal traits, implications for mental and physical health, and fostering excellence. As the editors and several authors point out, positive psychology has significant implications for improving the quality of personal and professional life through applications on both individual and societal levels. The first of the 4 sections includes 2 ambitious articles that examine positive psychology within an evolutionary framework. In “The Evolution of Happiness” David Buss offers 3 hypotheses to explain why positive states of mind are so often elusive: first, the discrepancies between modern and ancestral environments; second, mechanisms evolved that are “designed” to produce subjective distress (i.e., functional jealousy and worry); and third, competitive mechanisms evolved that function to benefit 1...
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