The Definition and Importance of Health Literacy
According to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010, the term health literacy is used to define the degree up to which an individual can achieve a basic understanding of the fundamental information regarding the health care procedures and services, process those information and communicate for making proper health decisions (Rudd, 2015). On the other hand, effective communication is considered as one of the most significant tool used to provide high quality patient care without any interruption. This involves interaction between the patient and the medical professionals and nurses regarding the patient information, their requirements and any possible issues that bother the patient. Therapeutic practice utilizes communication as a two way street between the patients and the nurses to resolve all the patient problems in a proactive manner and thereby ensure patient satisfaction (Johnson, 2014). When an individual gathers all the knowledge regarding the health care practice and professional skills and becomes capable of understanding and utilizing those information to promote health, prevent diseases and manage health care, they accomplish the ultimate health literacy that enables them to communicate and participate in providing great health care services.
Health literacy is without a doubt a dynamic concept that utilizes an interactive process among the health care stakeholders including the service providers, consumers, communities and health care professionals. The key role in this entire interaction is played by the medical professionals. While discussing about the communication regarding the structural framework of the health care system, it should be mentioned that the communication is mainly between the stakeholders and the information processing of the consumers. The complexity of the assessed health information is reflected by health literacy (Hibbard & Greene, 2013). Several strategies are needed to be implemented to promote a better health literacy and to fill in the communication gaps among the health care organizational systems and the patients. There are a few concepts that are connected to the health literacy in a practical way through implementation of several policy frameworks and legislations. The followings are the significance of implementing health literacy and communication in the organizations that provide health care:
- Person and Family Centred Care: This puts the focus on the people and their families to facilitate the process of exchange of information and thereby promote communication. This promotes open communication between the patients and the professionals and influences their collaboration. Along with this, the approach of a healthy partnership among the patients, their families and the health care executives can enhance the patient outcome positively (Schulz & Nakamoto, 2013). The communication can be enhanced by considering the cultural and linguistic aspects. The reliance on communications and cultural competence influences a better health outcome.
- Consumer participation: Participation of all the stakeholders including the consumers, the patients, the service providers, carers, medical professionals, patient families and communities in the decision making procedures promotes a greater health and well-being, treatment, policy and planning of the individuals (Schiavo, 2013).
- Cultural responsiveness: An important aspect of effective communication is that it promotes the cultural knowledge, intercultural communication skills of the individuals and increase the awareness by raising the sensitivity issues and building respect among the professionals. This requires a basic understanding of cultural competence among the professional and the organizational authority in the form of effective communication (Sykes, Wills, Rowlands & Popple, 2013). For achievement of a greater quality of health services, the capacity and flexibility of health professionals are required to be more adaptable so that they are enabled to respond appropriately.
- Quality and Safety: Health literacy ensures that the proper care is delivered to the right patient, without any delay and by following the appropriate measures of health care services. This approach of health care reduces the risks, prevents the adverse events and any possible harms to the patient (McCaffery et al., 2013). The reliance on the patients and their families for the achievement of effective communication and cultural competence improves the patient outcomes in a holistic way.
- Human rights: The approach of health literacy and effective communication puts the patient as the central focus. According to the human rights commission, all citizens have a right to achieve high quality health care services which is greatly ensured by implying the concept of health literacy in the organizations (Koh, Brach, Harris & Parchman, 2013).
An effective cultural communication is a necessary element of building a cultural competence and maintaining a positive atmosphere in a multicultural organization. Communication among the professionals and the employees is responsible for setting the tone of the organization and formation of the foundation of its culture. There may arise several challenges regarding the communication among the employees that should be resolved so that a work environment can be maintained that supports the requirements of the consumers and develops a unified morale of the organization (Coleman, Hudson & Maine, 2013). This positive work environment would eventually facilitate the productiveness of the organization. Many tactics can be implied to improve the communication between the patients and the medical professionals in health care organizations to maintain a cultural diversity. Understanding the fundamental needs is the best way to implement the tactics. The followings are a few simple tactics that can be implied by the medical professionals and all the health care employees while interacting with the patients:
- Possessing a basic knowledge regarding the cultural authenticity of the patients
- Keeping a broader mind and helping
- Actively listening to all the concerns of the patients
- Keeping an amiable non-verbal communication
The Role of Effective Communication in Patient Care
It is a prerequisite to assess the various ways of comprehension of people belonging from different cultural backgrounds. Even though it may be hard to interpret all the statements and behaviours of the patients and their families of different cultural backgrounds, it should be emphasized that the patients concerns are acknowledged at all times and accepted for a better cultural competence at the organization. The personal biases and stereotypes should be not be mixed with the organizational and professional values (Boyd et al., 2015). Training on diversity can be arranged to increase the awareness of culturally effective communication among the employees. This would help the health care providers to learn to be culturally sound and mindful and become adaptable to the communications when addressing people from various ethnic backgrounds. It is an essential aspect to maintain the effective cross-cultural communication among the patients and the medical professionals to develop a culturally safe and strong environment in the organization.
Culturally and linguistically diverse communities face several difficulties in accessing the required health care. Therefore, an interpreter who possess the skills of bridging the cultural gaps between the professional and the patients are required to intervene the communications. Usually the role is often performed by the nurse or the social worker or the case manager who possess these skills and trainings (Batterham et al., 2016). Therefore, the interpreter needs to be completely frank and open minded to both the patients and the professionals and while doing so also work according to their basic job requirements as well. The role of the interpreter involves multiple set of skills and abilities that are expected of them to imply at cultural, social or interpersonal as well as institutional level. At the interpersonal level the interpreting involves a dialogic setting which consists of interpretation of the dialogues of the participants in a communication. The interpretation of the communication results in the correct diagnosis of the patient problem and helps in developing a treatment plan for the patient (Green, Gonzaga, Cohen & Spagnoletti, 2014). Thus, the interpreter helps to achieve a shared and common goal of positive patient outcome by developing an understanding of the patient issues beyond the limitations of the language and culture.
The relationship between the concept of health literacy and that of the effective health communication is quite evident. Even though these are two functionally distinct concepts but they are related at several terms (Bramhall, 2014). Effective communication ensures proper exchange of information between the patients and the health care professionals, whereas health literacy makes it easier to establish the health care decisions by utilizing the professional skills and expertise. Effective communication mediates the interaction between the patient and the professionals to help establish quality health literacy and thereby promote the health outcomes of the patients. Majority of the health information is conveyed verbally through communication among the medical professionals involving the implementation of the various dimensions of the health literacy which highlights the significance of the communication skills of the interpreter. It is also possible that an individual who possess excellent communication skills may not possess the necessary knowledge on health literacy or vice versa (Nouri & Rudd, 2015). For overall achievement of a positive workforce the medical professionals must attain a relevant knowledge of the health literacy and possess effective communication skills.
The Importance of Culturally Competent Communication
Systems and organisational policies of higher level and the practices must be embedded to address health literacy in a much more coordinated method. It is essential to achieve detailed health information, establish effective interpersonal communication and integrate the concept of health literacy into the educational programs for the consumers and the professionals. The connections among the diversified networks of health literacy, culture and linguistics is responsible for making an impact on the deciding factors of health policies, medical practice and professional training (Lowell et al., 2014). There are several levels and scopes for improvement of health literacy among individuals that progressively lead to a greater autonomous system. An individual’s knowledge and literacy about health poses a significant impact on not only their own health and lifestyle but also on the health of their families and communities as well.
Conclusion
Health literacy makes people enable so that they can achieve, interpret, assess and communicate the health information to address various requirements. It helps in promoting the maintenance of good health across the course of life. Identifying the development of an evidence based strategy along with initiatives for improved health literacy is essential for better health outcomes. Incorporating an approach of prevention and precaution to reform and ensure effective communication among all the staffs and patients will lead to an improvement in the health care processes. The influence of health care staffs on achieving health literacy is being acknowledged and also increasing day by day. In order to achieve complete health literacy, the focus must be placed on the health care organisations, systems and staffs. Improvement of health literacy among the new medical professionals will be able to provide more informed choices, better ideas about prevention and wellness, improved navigation ideas regarding the health system, reduced risks, promote patient safety and patient care, thereby lead to a better quality of life.
References
Batterham, R. W., Hawkins, M., Collins, P. A., Buchbinder, R., & Osborne, R. H. (2016). Health literacy: applying current concepts to improve health services and reduce health inequalities. Public Health, 132, 3-12. doi: 10.1016/j.puhe.2016.01.001
Boyd, C., Dare, J., Blackwell, W., Sterry, W., Sabat, R., & Wright, S. (2015). Communication Skills for Nurses. PRIMARY HEALTH CARE, 25(6). DOI:10.7748/phc.25.6.13.s11
Bramhall, E. (2014). Effective communication skills in nursing practice. Nursing Standard (2014+), 29(14), 53. doi: 10.7748/ns.29.14.53.e9355
Coleman, C. A., Hudson, S., & Maine, L. L. (2013). Health literacy practices and educational competencies for health professionals: a consensus study. Journal of Health Communication, 18(sup1), 82-102. doi: 10.1080/10810730.2013.829538
Green, J. A., Gonzaga, A. M., Cohen, E. D., & Spagnoletti, C. L. (2014). Addressing health literacy through clear health communication: a training program for internal medicine residents. Patient education and counseling, 95(1), 76-82. doi: 10.1016/j.pec.2014.01.004
Hibbard, J. H., & Greene, J. (2013). What the evidence shows about patient activation: better health outcomes and care experiences; fewer data on costs. Health affairs, 32(2), 207-214. doi: 10.1377/hlthaff.2012.1061
Johnson, A. (2014). Health literacy, does it make a difference?. Australian Journal of Advanced Nursing, The, 31(3), 39. Retrieved from: https://repositorio.ufc.br/bitstream/riufc/9160/1/2014_art_ghcunha.pdf#page=40
Koh, H. K., Brach, C., Harris, L. M., & Parchman, M. L. (2013). A proposed ‘health literate care model’would constitute a systems approach to improving patients’ engagement in care. Health Affairs, 32(2), 357-367.
doi: 10.1377/hlthaff.2012.1205
McCaffery, K. J., Holmes-Rovner, M., Smith, S. K., Rovner, D., Nutbeam, D., Clayman, M. L., … & Sheridan, S. L. (2013). Addressing health literacy in patient decision aids. BMC medical informatics and decision making, 13(2), S10. doi: 10.1186/1472-6947-13-S2-S10
Nouri, S. S., & Rudd, R. E. (2015). Health literacy in the “oral exchange”: An important element of patient–provider communication. Patient education and counseling, 98(5), 565-571. doi: 10.1016/j.pec.2014.12.002
Rudd, R. E. (2015). The evolving concept of health literacy: new directions for health literacy studies. doi: 10.1179/1753806815Z.000000000105
Schiavo, R. (2013). Health communication: From theory to practice. John Wiley & Sons. Retrieved from: https://oldweb.sanjeshp.ir/phd/phd_91/Pages/Refrences/Health%20communication/Renata%20Schiavo2007.pdf
Schulz, P. J., & Nakamoto, K. (2013). Health literacy and patient empowerment in health communication: the importance of separating conjoined twins. Patient education and counseling, 90(1), 4-11. doi: 10.1016/j.pec.2012.09.006
Sykes, S., Wills, J., Rowlands, G., & Popple, K. (2013). Understanding critical health literacy: a concept analysis. BMC public health, 13(1), 150. doi: 10.1186/1471-2458-13-150
Order an Essay Now & Get These Features For Free:
Turnitin Report
Formatting
Title Page
Citation
Outline
