What is Health Literacy?

The AHRQ website provides substantial barriers to health literacy. In this regard, the site points out that patients go to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) with different levels of education, which is a provision that influences them to speak in a different language (DHSS, 2017). This situation can be a barrier to their understanding of health information. The other barrier identified is that it is difficult for a healthcare professional to tell the literacy level of an individual just by looking at them (DHHS, 2017). This idea is one of the fundamental issues that should be considered when thinking about the need to provide clinicians with health literacy training. Patients have to be provided with information regarding their health, which is one of the elements that will enable them to understand and act on the health information they receive.

Considering the different barriers identified, a primary consideration in the daily practice of clinicians would involve doing things that would make it easier for a patient with low literacy to comprehend the services as well as the information provided by the clinicians. As identified by DHHS (2017), the high school dropout rate in the United States is 30%. This rate affects a significant number of clinicians in the sense that they become frustrated with patients that do not take medications seriously. Since the patients do not understand the importance of the medication, it is vital to provide the clinicians with health literacy training to ensure that their patients comply with the health information they receive. According to DHHS (2017), clinicians might not consider that a patient might be struggling with understanding the manner in which he or she should make a follow up for medical services. For this reason, the consideration of providing literacy training is plausible.

Reference

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS). (2017). Health Literacy: Hidden Barriers and Practical Strategies. Retrieved from https://www.ahrq.gov/professionals/quality-patient-safety/quality-resources/tools/literacy-toolkit/tool3a/index.html