Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Uams Summer Health Literacy Study, Merritt Osment

Health, Human Performance and Recreation Undergraduate Honors Theses

Background: Health Literacy is a barrier to self-care; patients often lack the skills to understand complicated instructions that deal with medications, wound care, follow up schedules, and preventative care. Patients who undergo hip and knee replacements are often older adults, a population that normally struggles with various aspects of health literacy. Patient education materials are a common means of communicating with these individuals. However, if the patient does not understand the materials that they are given, they are more likely to experience negative side effects after their operation. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to compare the health literacy …

Applying Process Standardization And Health Literacy Precautions To Increase Older Adult Patient Satisfaction With Medication Teaching, Casie N. Sultana

Master's Projects

The purpose of this paper is to describe a quality improvement (QI) project with the goal of creating an evidence-based, standardized process for nurses to teach older adult patients about newly prescribed medications.

Creation Of A Diabetic Health Literacy Program For Staff Of A Rural Federally Qualified Healthcare Center, Cathy Jones

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Adult residents in rural communities have a higher incidence of chronic diseases. This fact coupled with low health literacy and a lack of primary and specialty care services makes the management of diseases such as diabetes difficult. The purpose of this doctoral project was to develop a diabetic health literacy program for staff of a rural federally qualified health care center (FQHC) that is the largest primary care center within a 5-county area in a rural mid-Atlantic region of the United States. Most residents have difficulty understanding diabetic information as it is presented to them, which leads to an increase …

Staff Education For Registered Nurses Using The Teach-Back Method, Mary Elizabeth Sizer

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

This purpose of this quality improvement project was to develop an educational training curriculum designed for staff nurses to use the teach-back method with patients with low health literacy during discharge instructions. Health literacy is associated with the ability to read, comprehend, and make appropriate healthcare decisions; the teach-back method asks patients to restate or explain health information in their own words, aiding retention and literacy. Effective staff education plays a critical role in the education of patients during discharge teaching: Nurses must help to ensure that patients and their families understand healthcare information and apply this information in their …

Chemotherapy Knowledge And Health Literacy Among Women With Breast Cancer, Pearman Detreville Parker

Theses and Dissertations

Chemotherapy education is imperative for patients to gain the knowledge to manage side effects, adhere to prescribed cycles, and recognize the severity of symptoms that require immediate provider contact. Two vital factors – the readability of teaching materials and the patient’s health literacy – must be considered during chemotherapy education. However, materials are often not assessed for readability. Further, the influence of a patient’s health literacy level and demographic factors on chemotherapy knowledge has not yet been investigated. The specific aims are to: (1) critique the readability and format of chemotherapy education materials; (2) explore how women with breast cancer …

Improving Health Literacy Assessments In Pediatrics, Kristina Michelle Wright

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Low health literacy (LHL)--when patients do not understand their treatment or medications--has been linked to poor healthcare outcomes. Nurses need to know how to assess health literacy (HL) and teach pediatric patients and their families to help ensure that patients and family members can understand and follow health education messages. Evidence-based HL tools were obtained from a literature search and used to create a nursing staff education program on pediatric patient HL assessment and education. The project answered the practice-focused question that asked whether a staff education program on HL assessment and management would improve nursing knowledge of HL for …

Health Literacy In A Primary Care Setting, Ashley Newman

DNP Projects

BACKGROUND: Low health literacy is prevalent in the United States. As a result, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) developed universal health literacy precautions to improve patient understanding of health information. Using universal precautions and specific tools, such as teach-back, has been shown to decrease morbidity and improve patient outcomes.

PURPOSE: The purpose of this quality improvement project is to assess provider knowledge of health literacy in a primary care setting. A secondary purpose is to assess the use of patient education material for patients with diabetes, hypertension, and hyperlipidemia that meet universal precautions.

METHODS: This study was …