Educating Patients: Creating Teaching Moments in Practice
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continuum from new graduates to experienced nurses. Author. • National Library of Medicine. (2021). Communicating with patients. https://medlineplus.gov/ency/patientinstructions/000456.htm • Professional Standards Councils. (n.d.). What is a profession? https://www.psc.gov.au/what-is-a-profession/academic-view
CHAPTER 2: BARRIERS TO TEACHING AND LEARNING
Learning outcome After completing this chapter, the learn- er will be able to examine barriers to learning in the healthcare setting and the related effects on a person’s learning capability, including: Distinguish between health literacy levels. Assess other factors that can create barriers to learning. INTRODUCTION For patient and family education to be successful, there must be knowledge giv- en and comprehension on behalf of the learner. There are many elements that can cause barriers to effective teaching and learning. Healthcare professionals must be able to identify these obstacles and create strategies to address and over- come them. Patients may have variations in their ability to learn medical information based on low health literacy. The individual also must be ready to learn. Individual learn- ing styles and differences in communi- cation must be considered. Patients may have certain limitations or cultural consid- erations that may also impact teaching and learning. Literacy versus health literacy There is a relationship between literacy, numeracy, and health literacy, although they are different concepts. Literacy and numeracy are skills that are used by in- dividuals to complete tasks and achieve purposes (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], 2022a). Literacy is described as comprehending, assessing, utilizing, and participating with written
text to acquire one’s own knowledge and potential, accomplish one’s goals, and play a part in society (CDC, 2022a). Nu- meracy is defined as the ability to retrieve, use, decipher, and convey mathematical information and concepts as well as man- age mathematical challenges in a variety of adult life situations (CDC, 2022a). Health literacy definitions now en - compass both personal health literacy and organizational health literacy, based upon the Healthy People 2030 initiative (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2021). Personal health literacy is the extent to which individuals can lo- cate, comprehend, and use information and services to make informed decisions and perform actions for their own health or that of others (CDC, 2022b). Organiza- tional health literacy is the level at which organizations equitably support individu- als to obtain, understand, and utilize ma- terial and services for informed decisions and actions for their own health or on be- half of others (CDC, 2022b). For the purposes of this course health literacy will refer to the patient’s personal health literacy.
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