According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human
Resources, “Health literacy is defined as the degree to which individuals have
the capacity to obtain, process, and understand basic health information needed
to make appropriate health decisions and services needed to prevent or treat
illness.” I, as a nurse, am a patient advocate that needs to take
responsibility in teaching my patients about their health, their medications,
their home health regimens, etc.
The topic
about health literacy, especially in the elderly population is so critical
because a lot of times these patients have a lot of comorbidities, more
medications, and more at-home procedures and routines that must be followed in
order to keep them healthy and out of the clinics and hospitals. When nurses
can teach a patient more about their health, they are empowering that patient
to become as advocate for themselves and their health, rather than a passenger
on the crazy ride through the medical field. Also, when patients are educated
about their medications, their at-home procedures, and the reason for doing
what they are instructed to do, their compliance with those medications and
procedures greatly increase. When compliance with the health regimen increases,
those patients are not subjected to avoidable hospital stays and procedures
that need to be performed in order to regain their optimal health.
If, as
nurses, we can assess our elderly patient’s health literacy and teach them
about their healthcare on their own level of understanding, we could decrease
hospital readmissions greatly. If we could just prevent one out of every ten
patients that we care for from having to be readmitted to the hospital,
national healthcare costs could greatly decrease. And just imagine all of the
money and resources that could be saved when national healthcare costs are
lessened?
Not only
would the economy be impacted, but all of the stress and anxiety that patients
may feel at home when they don’t understand their medications or how to perform
their procedures could be decreased as well. With less stress and anxiety,
patients are more likely to comply with the regimen that the doctor also
creating less frequency of those patients in clinics and hospitals with complications.
As nurses we do not want to educate our patients just to avoid complications
and unnecessary hospitalizations, we want to promote wellness and allow our
patients to live the fullest lives possible.
In this blog, I have examined what health
literacy is, why it is important, gave an example of poor education combined
with a patient’s low health literacy, and assessment and implementation skills
that nurses can use when caring for patients with low health literacies. As a
nurse, I am an advocate for the patient and have the responsibility to make
sure that they are educated about their health and healthcare regimen. When nurses
can assess the patient’s health literacy level, how they best learn, and make
sure the patient understand any education given, the patient and their health
is more manageable to them. When patients feel in control of their own
healthcare plan, they have less stress and anxiety, which itself can lessen
healthcare complications.
About Health Literacy. (n.d.).
Retrieved September 21, 2015, from
http://www.hrsa.gov/publichealth/healthliteracy/healthlitabout.html