| dc.description.abstract | Individuals with low health literacy face many difficulties within the healthcare system, including seeking medical care in inappropriate places, foregoing appointments and preventative health screenings, and misunderstanding self-care instructions. This leads to more hospitalizations, increased healthcare expenses, and use of healthcare resources. Low health literacy is especially significant in rural populations, where there are additional barriers to healthcare such as geography, distance, weather, inadequate financial resources and lower socioeconomic status, and lack of primary care and specialty providers. Furthermore, providers often do not consider patients’ preferred learning styles, which may be significant for those who have difficulty understanding instructions. Patient education may be more effective if teaching strategies are individualized to each patient.
The purpose of this project was to assess the health literacy and preferred learning style of patients at a primary care clinic in rural North Dakota and educate healthcare providers in the respective clinic on health literacy and teaching methods, which has the potential to enhance patient education and learning. The implementation of this practice improvement project included assessing patients’ health literacy levels and preferred learning styles and an educational session for rural healthcare providers. Health literacy levels and preferred learning styles were tested using the Rapid Estimate of Adult Literacy in Medicine (REALM) and Visual, Auditory, Reading/Writing, and Kinesthetic (VARK) tools, respectively. The education session utilized a presentation to discuss health literacy in rural populations and the importance of assessing health literacy and learning style. A pre- and post-test and follow-up survey assessed providers’ knowledge of the importance of testing health literacy and preferred learning style, available tools, and their intent to utilize these tools in practice.
The results of the project indicate there continues to be gaps in knowledge related to risk factors of low health literacy, tools available to measure health literacy and learning styles, and consistent utilization of health literacy and learning style information when educating patients. The project was successful in raising awareness of the problem of low health literacy in rural populations but reflects the need for healthcare facilities to provide education for their healthcare team on these topics. | en_US |
