What´s Health Literacy?

Improved Essays
Health literacy is a common problem health entities face in the U.S. Health literacy is found within any age, gender or classification. Most community that suffers with health literacy is the poor and older community. Poverty is the leading reason why most individuals within these communities lacks proper education and sadly have chosen to drop out of school to find jobs to help with expense. The older communities suffer with forgetfulness (related illness) or insufficient education. A great way for healthcare entities to recognize literacy among their patients is to perform assessments. The organization may use health literacy assessment such as Rapid Estimate of Adult Literacy in Medicine (REALM). This assessment asks basic medical terms question. These assessments are essential for the patient’s understanding in their medical needs. This minimizes the risk in over/under dosage, proper …show more content…
As professionals, you must expect confusion, lack of listening and a shift of emotion from the patient. We must be prepared to answer questions by using plain language or pictures, being compassion and patient, and encourage participation from the patient. It’s imperative to get feedback from patients or confirmation of their understanding.
Health literacy assessment tools are helpful for a practice and to meet the patient’s needs. However, does these practices consider how these assessment makes a person feel that suffers with low literacy? An article called “The Rapid estimate of Adult literacy in Medicine: a research study by Pat Campbell”, provides eight adults perspective of the REALM tool.
The article was intriguing and full supported of literacy assessment tools, it amazed and reminded me that adults might be embarrassed, demeaned, fear of literacy exposure, and reluctant to share their fears with physicians or medical

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    Low Literacy In Nursing

    • 1021 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Literacy is defined in the National Literacy Act of 1991 as “an individual 's ability to read, write, and speak in English, and compute and solve problems at levels of proficiency necessary to function on the job and in society, to achieve one 's goals, and develop one 's knowledge and potential”(Irwin, 1991, p. 7). I think it is safe to say, when many think of a low literacy individual, it is automatically assumed the person is educationally disadvantaged, mental disabled, and/or non-English speaking…

    • 1021 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Lia Lee Character Analysis

    • 1586 Words
    • 6 Pages

    related to public health. As a public health nurse, she worked in the public sector to oversee the components of Lia Lee 's care outside of the medical setting. She was assigned to the Lee family by the Merced County Health Department. Simply stated, she was there to make sure hat the Lee 's were overall on the right track and were preventing Lia from ending up back in the hospital. Outside of Lia 's medical care, Effie was able to observe her behavioral and environmental health. By making home visits…

    • 1586 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    , 2015). Lee et al.’s (2012) research supports the theory that persons with low HL will have more difficulty following a self-management regimen geared towards improving overall health outcomes than those with HL. Individuals with CVD require extensive self-care management, including the ability to read and understand medication labels, comprehend the importance of a balanced diet and regular exercise, and the significance of smoking cessation in relation to CVD health risks. After reviewing…

    • 807 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays