Educating Nursing Students about Health Literacy: From the Classroom to the Patient Bedside

Abstract

All nurses and nursing students today must be able assess patients for health literacy limitations and intervene to assure patient understanding of important health information. In this article the authors discuss the significance of the health literacy problem and share strategies for identifying and intervening with patients who have limited health literacy. They also describe how they incorporated health literacy content into their nursing education program and assessed the impact of this brief, health literacy education session. The analysis and results of this assessment indicated both a significant increase in student knowledge related to health literacy and the need for nurses to assess more fully patients’ understanding of what they have been taught. Patient initiative in asking for assistance in understanding health-related information was limited. Discussion and implications of these findings for nursing education and nursing practice are provided.