Have you heard the new buzz word in health care? Yes, it’s health literacy, which means a persons ability to read and understand health information and the ability to successfully interpret this information to become a functioning health care consumer. Although this definition is broad, it certainly makes it clear that an individual must be able to function as such to properly care for their health. As nurses, we take it for granted that we are able to do this and assume that so can our patients, especially after teaching them.

Think about how many times a patient who has been readmitted because he keeps taking the wrong dose of insulin or didn’t follow his written “sick day” instructions and goes into diabetic ketoacidosis? Many times we overlook why is this happening. Does this patient understand his written diabetes information or how to read an insulin syringe or vial?

Consider this: the Institute of Medicine reports that 90 million people suffer from health illiteracy in the US. About 75 million people suffer from low health literacy, which means they can not read, understand, and act on even the most basic health information or instructions. What does this translate to for nurses? We care for people who are affected every day. To get an even greater picture of the problem, the Center for Health Care Strategies, Inc. has put together some fact sheets that include very compelling research on the impact of health illiteracy.

Because most people with low to no literacy skills won’t tell you as such, there are a few things we can do to assess a patient’s ability to understand the information we give them. For instance, if the patient brings their medications in from home ask him to read the labels to you. Alternatively, ask the patient to read a small section of written teaching information you have given him.

The National Institutes of Health has put together some information and resources for health care professionals on this subject. AskMe3.org is the site for the Partnership of Clear Health Communication which is funded by Pfizer that works to promote clear communication between patients and health care professionals. They provide material to help educate us as health care professionals about health literacy as well as materials for patients.

Nurses can incorporate low literacy materials for their patients. Using pictures and symbols has been effective for the pediatrics setting, but may also be appropriate for adults with low literacy. Nurses can also test the readability of written teaching materials, including discharge instructions, with the Fog Index (this site also includes great writing tips) or the Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level. Many word processing programs have an automatic readability function in the tools>options section on the menu bar.