Conclusion and Why It Should Matter To You

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