What´s Health Literacy?

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