Content area
Full text
Nurses spend more time than any other health professional with patients. They are responsible for the delivery of a variety of patient care activities including the provision of health information. Health education is important for those we care for, however health literacy is a more comprehensive concept that considers the health knowledge and skills required for our patients to engage with our health care system and participate actively in their own health care.
Health literacy is more than just the ability to read and write. For our patients, it involves a complex set of skills and attributes that include: comprehension, the appraisal of health care information, social support, confidence and motivation to act as partners in management of their health. Health literacy is defined as a person's ability to seek, understand and use health information to make well-informed decisions about their health (World Health Organization, 1998).
Around one third of Australians have inadequate health literacy (Barer, et al; Australian Bureau of Statistics 2009). Lower health literacy is associated with higher rates of preventable hospitalisations (Baker, et al 2002; von Wagner, et al 2009), inadequate consumer-health professional communication (Schillinger, et al 2002),...