Working together to understand community health literacy

Health literacy is an important predictor of overall health outcomes. The lack of knowledge, skills, and ability to safety navigate and act on health information impacts a person’s understanding of their health status. Although health care professionals readily acknowledge the impact of low health literacy, many providers (e.g. nurses) continue to struggle in methods of assessment and improvement. First year baccalaureate nursing students worked in collaboration with a local community healthcare center to understand the current level of health literacy of the provider’s service region. The students used a modified version of the Rapid Estimate of Adult Literacy in Medicine (REALM) with a convenience sample of community members (N = 401) and patients seeking health care treatment at a Midwestern facility (N = 210) to evaluate understanding of basic health care terminology. Participants also offered insight into their preferred methods of learning (visual, auditory, read/write, kinesthetic). Results suggest the community and patient population of the facility were significantly impacted by low health literacy and the preferred methods of learning were potentially misaligned with the current approaches for delivering health care support. This paper will present the community-based collaborative process for assessment and offer recommendations for improved continued delivery of care.