Global Health Nursing & Midwifery

Thanks Inge for posting this. I just saw the excellent presentation of the challenges of Health Literacy and I look forward to listening to the presentation later as I am sure I will learn more.

In our Infectious Disease clinic we try and address the question of health literacy through sharing with each other (nurses, doctors and social workers) what strategies have worked and what best approaches we should use with patients based on their needs as they come to share them with us. This can be very targeted and individualized to the patient.

For some patients it is the reinforcement of reviewing complex medications with them at weekly visits of pre-filling med boxes and gradually having patients take charge of the teaching and doing return teaching with us.

For others it is working closely with visiting nurses and community health workers seeing patients at home. We try and stay in close contact with them to ensure there is continued follow up and reinforcement of teaching at home. Often we plan calls with them while they are with the patient so there is a continuity of care at home and patients know they are working with a team who share ...

Thanks Inge for posting this. I just saw the excellent presentation of the challenges of Health Literacy and I look forward to listening to the presentation later as I am sure I will learn more.

In our Infectious Disease clinic we try and address the question of health literacy through sharing with each other (nurses, doctors and social workers) what strategies have worked and what best approaches we should use with patients based on their needs as they come to share them with us. This can be very targeted and individualized to the patient.

For some patients it is the reinforcement of reviewing complex medications with them at weekly visits of pre-filling med boxes and gradually having patients take charge of the teaching and doing return teaching with us.

For others it is working closely with visiting nurses and community health workers seeing patients at home. We try and stay in close contact with them to ensure there is continued follow up and reinforcement of teaching at home. Often we plan calls with them while they are with the patient so there is a continuity of care at home and patients know they are working with a team who share in the desire for their health and well being.

Sometimes it is just connecting with patients by phone on a regular basis, asking how they are doing, if they are having symptoms or if they have any new concerns or issues they would like to discuss.

One of my nurse colleagues Laura and I were discussing this very issue this morning, and we shared some information of how we would like to do more group teaching in our clinic as this could potentially decrease social isolation. We discussed that we would like to have more time to use media presentations to patients before they start treatment, things like "treatment literacy" workshops that were so wonderfully done by the Treatment Action Campaign with patients in South Africa.

Although there is progress in the area of health literacy there is a need for us to be vigilant in our attention to it as our patient population diversifies and their needs change. We would like to expand our present menu of health literacy ideas and use these to guide us in the future.

http://www.tac.org.za/community/treatmentliteracy

The link to Treatment Action Campaigns Health Literacy materials.

Thank you Chris for your response and the added resource for all of us. Having patients teach back is one of the approaches Marta also discussed. And the follow-up you do is fundamental to having patients feel comfortable in asking you questions and/or expressing concerns.
What do you and others do when you first meet a new patient to assess their health literacy?