Unit 9&10 NUR155 - Exam 2, Health Literacy, Culture, & Medication Admin | 2026 Latest Update | Verified Solutions

Chapter 14: Health Literacy and Paent Educaon

-Health Literacy
 Health Literacy
o The unique ability of a person to understand and integrate health-
related knowledge
o Is about paents having the literacy skills (reading and wring),
numeracy skills, and the ability to obtain, understand, and use
medical informaon from the health care team or other sources to
make informed decisions about their course of treatment
 Organizaonal health literacy
o The ability of organizaons to enable individuals to understand and
use informaon and services to inform health-related decisions and
acons
o Apply improvement methods, improve verbal interacon, improve
verbal communicaon, engage pts as partners in care &
improvement efforts
 Low health literacy vs low literacy
o May have misinformaon or lack knowledge about the body or
nature and causes of disease
o May not understand the relaonship between lifestyle choices such
as diets, acvity levels, and healthy outcomes
o Associated with higher risk of death, greater # of potenally
preventable hospitalizaons, & higher ulizaon of healthcare
services as result of poorly controlled chronic illness

-Role of Health Literacy in Nursing and Paent Educaon
 Nurses
o Responsible for paent educaon
o LPN and UAP cannot teach
 Paent Educaon
o Prevenng disease
o Promong health
o Providing treatment instrucons
o Clarifying informaon
o Coping with limitaons

,!SAFE PRACTICE ALERT! : Do not use abbreviaons or medical terminology when
providing paent with instrucons.

-Types of Paent Educaon
 Formal: usually educator or nurse directed
 Informal: usually learner or paent directed
 Primary educaon: examples of early instrucons: handwashing, proper
dental care, and nutrion
 Teaching/learning: imparng (giving the knowledge)/acquiring (receiving)
knowledge or skills
o Teaching may be delivered in acute care, long term care, and
outpaent sengs
 Consideraon must be given to the pt’s background, readiness to learn, and
current condion before educaon can occur

-Domains of Learning
 Cognive domain - verbalize
o Learning comprises knowledge and material that is remembered
o EX: clients explains the side effects to watch for with a new
medicaon
o Memorizaon and recall
 Psychomotor domain – demonstra on
o Learning incorporates physical movement and the use of motor skills
into learning
o EX: client demonstrates how to apply the colostomy water to the
stoma correctly
o Demonstraon and return demonstraon
 Affecve domain – emo ons/feelings
o Learning recognizes the emoonal component of integrang new
knowledge
o EX: client shows atude and behavior changes and has accepted
their new colostomy

-Learning Styles
 Assessment tools
o VARK
 Verbal

,  Aural
 Read/write
 Kinesthec: hands on learner
o Mulmodal learning
 Use of more than one teaching strategy

-Factors affecng health literacy and paent teaching
 Age and developmental stage
 Role
 Environment
o The seng should be quiet, and the session should have minimal
interrupons, providing privacy, good lighng should be available
 Timing
o Should examine the paent’s situaon and comfort leveling before
beginning teaching
 Availability of resources
 Evidence-based pracce

-Assessment
 Paent behaviors that may indicate inadequate health literacy
o Informaon on forms is incomplete or inaccurate
o Paent wants to take a wrien document home
o Paent misses appointments
o Paent does not follow through with tests or referrals
o Paent is noncompliant with medicaon and treatment regimens
o Paent self-reports compliance, but laboratory or imaging tests do
not show expected results

-Nursing Diagnosis
 Example ICNP diagnoses
o Lack of knowledge (i.e., about treatment regimen)
o Ready to learn (i.e., diabetes management)
o Literacy problem

-Planning
 Develop the paent educaon care plan
o Consider the paent’s support system

, o Determine the outcome statements early in the process
o Allow paents to idenfy what is important to them
o Consider the paent’s health literacy

-Implementaon and Evaluaon
 Environment
 Place
 Data integraon
 Repeon and demonstraon
 Evaluaon
 Ethical, legal, and professional pracce
 Documentaon
o EHRs document the progress of pt teaching with detailed descripons
of the goals, what was taught, how it was taught, and the pt’s
reacon to the teaching
o Forms are signed by the nurse and pt to indicate that teaching has
taken place
o IMPORTANT for the nurse to document what was taught, to whom,
by which method, and how the paent responded

-Recognizing the Role of Technology
 Teaching can take place via tele-educaon
 Paent materials should be developed using reliable websites
 Tailor informaon to meet the literacy needs of the individual