Discussion 1- Foundational Literacies and Health Informatics
Health informatics is every evolving and a very important part of
nursing informatics. This specialty bridges nursing science with analytical
science to be able to better manage, educate and communicate nursing
practices. Health informatics not only benefits the nurse, but it also benefits
the patient, community, and the entire healthcare team. Per the textbook,
multiple theoretical foundations of health informatics exist. I will be focusing
this discussion post on health literacy. Health literacy focuses on the ability
for patients to access, evaluate and apply information to health-related
decisions (Nelson & Staggers, 2018). According to the center for Disease
control and Prevention health literacy is broken down into two categories;
personal and organizational. Personal health literacy is in which how
individuals are capable of finding out and using information. Organizational
is the ability to provide individuals with the information needed (What Is
Health Literacy? Take Action. Find Out., 2021).
Goals of healthcare organizations is to make it easy for patients to
navigate and understand the information to better their health. I know the
organization that I work for is putting forth great effort to offer new patient
portals where health information is at the fingertips of the patient. Once
registered the patient can view their entire electronic health record. There is
no more waiting for a follow-up to get results. An additional tactic is doing
appointment reminder texts and even making electronic ways to make
appointments. In our fast paced society, people need ways to continue with
daily living without worrying about long possible hold times to make
appointments. Recently when coming together to make the Healthy People
2030, healthy literacy was added into the framework. The goal is to continue
striving for both communication and meeting the demands and complexities
of what is needed for health and health care aligning with the skills and
abilities of individuals and communities Parker & Ratzan, 2019).
Occurrences that can get in the way of health literacy is the literacy of
general society. Even the most literate patients can struggle with the
understanding of health related issues. Younger to middle aged patients can
take it upon themselves to look up additional information about things the
doctor or nurse told them, but the elderly population could struggle with not
understanding what was said or even how to use the internet as an option to
help them understand.
A recent study was completed to assess the competencies of
individuals based upon health literacy and digital literacy. They wanted to
validate the use of an eHealth literacy assessment toolkit (eHLA) using a mix
of existing and newly developed scales. This was wanting to see if these
toolkits adequetly assessed patient’s functions and limitations and to see if
they were achieving the optimal outcomes in the results. The eHLA was
validated for properly screening and receiving information on patient’s
knowledge related to health literacy (Karnoe et al., 2018).
As nurse leaders we need to promote health literacy in our field of
nursing. As difficult as it sounds to get behind at times, this push for more of
a digital experience will continue to be at the forefront. The digital era is not
going away and seems to be getting strong and stronger every day. The
push for education for both nursing and patients seems to be beneficial. The
bible states, “There the Lord issued a ruling and instruction for them and put
them to the test. He said If you listen carefully to the Lord your God and do
what is right in his eyes, if you pay attention to his commands and keep all
his decrees” (Exodus 15:26). Nurses who are able to listen to the Lord and
follow their heart will not only be strong patient advocates but also be able
to be strong advocates for any healthcare change and education.
References
Karnoe, A., Fustrand, D., Christensen, K. B., Norgaard, O., & Kayser, L. (2018).
Assessing competencies needed to engage with digital health services:
Development of the eHealth literacy assessment toolkit. Journal of
Medical Internet Research, 20(5), e178-e178.
https://doi.org/10.2196/jmir.8347
Nelson, R. & Staggers, N. (2018). Health informatics: an interprofessional
approach (2nd ed.). St. Louis, MO: Elsevier.
Parker, R. M., & Ratzan, S. (2019). Re-enforce, not re-define health literacy-
moving forward with health literacy 2.0. Journal of Health
Communication, 24(12), 923-925.
https://doi.org/10.4080/10810730.2019.1691292
The Holy Bible: New international version. (2011). Grand Rapids, MI:
Zondervan.
What is health literacy? Take action. Find out. (2021). Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention.
https://www.cdc.gov/healthliteracy/learn/index.html
Response to:
Michelle-
I enjoyed reading your discussion post. Health informatics a very
important part of nursing informatics. This specialty bridges nursing and
technology. Health informatics not only benefits the nurse, but it also
benefits the patient, community, and the entire healthcare team (Nelson &
Staggers, 2018). I agree with you that advance practice nurses (APN) need
to be one step ahead when it comes to educational opportunities for not only
ourselves but our patients. I focused my discussion post on health literacy
as one of the foundational literacies. Learning about the digital side was
interesting and also similar to health literacy. They go hand in hand. The
push for more of a digital experience will continue to be at the forefront. The
digital era is not going away and seems to be getting strong and stronger
every day. Even the most literate patients can struggle with the
understanding of health related issues. Younger to middle aged patients can
take it upon themselves to look up additional information about things the
doctor or nurse told them, but the elderly population could struggle with not
understanding what was said or even how to use the internet as an option to
help them understand.
Along the lines of the digital literacy, I found a study that validated the
efficacy of the eHealth literacy assessment toolkit (eHLA). It was multiple
scales that were used to see how well patient’s learned and what limitations
were present. The goals was to develop the best optional outcomes related
to the patient receiving information. It was found that this eHLA was a
proper screening and showed deficiencies and what materials patient’s
learned best from (Karnoe et al., 2018).
We must all work as a team to help with health informatics and
develop strategies that will both benefit the patient and the health care
system as a whole. Proverbs 11:14 states, “For lack of guidance a nation
falls, but victory is won through many advisers” (NIV). Working together we
will grow and develop the best possible solution to tackle this.
References
Karnoe, A., Fustrand, D., Christensen, K. B., Norgaard, O., & Kayser, L. (2018).
Assessing competencies needed to engage with digital health services:
Development of the eHealth literacy assessment toolkit. Journal of
Medical Internet Research, 20(5), e178-e178.
https://doi.org/10.2196/jmir.8347
Nelson, R. & Staggers, N. (2018). Health informatics: an interprofessional
approach (2nd ed.). St. Louis, MO: Elsevier.
The Holy Bible: New international version. (2011). Grand Rapids, MI:
Zondervan.
Response to:
Kathy-
I enjoyed reading your discussion post. Agree that technology is all
around us and it is not going away. Because of this health informatics is a
very important and integral part of nursing. Health informatics not only
benefits the nurse, but it also benefits the patient, community, and the entire
healthcare team (Nelson & Staggers, 2018). The textbook listed multiple
foundations but I also focused my discussion post around health literacy.
Getting the information in the hands of the patient is key for this day in age.
However we have to make sure that people are able to navigate and
understanding that information correctly. Even the most literate patients can
struggle with the understanding of health related issues. Younger to middle
aged patients can take it upon themselves to look up additional information
about things the doctor or nurse told them, but the elderly population could
struggle with not understanding what was said or even how to use the
internet as an option to help them understand.
The facility I work for is also pushing for health literacy. They have an
electronic portal that once registered the patient can view their entire
electronic health record. There is no more waiting for a follow-up to get
results. An additional tactic is doing appointment reminder texts and even
making electronic ways to make appointments.
Health literacy was added to the most recent Healthy 2030 guidelines
and goals. Adding this to the framework puts both communication and
meeting the demands and complexities of what is needed for health and
health care at the forefront (Parker & Ratzan, 2019).
We must all work as a team to help with health informatics and develop
strategies that will both benefit the patient and the health care system as a
whole. Proverbs 11:14 states, “For lack of guidance a nation falls, but victory
is won through many advisers” (NIV). Working together we will grow and
develop the best possible solution to tackle this.
Refrences
Nelson, R. & Staggers, N. (2018). Health informatics: an interprofessional
approach (2nd ed.). St. Louis, MO: Elsevier.
Parker, R. M., & Ratzan, S. (2019). Re-enforce, not re-define health literacy-
moving forward with health literacy 2.0. Journal of Health
Communication, 24(12), 923-925.
https://doi.org/10.4080/10810730.2019.1691292
The Holy Bible: New international version. (2011). Grand Rapids, MI:
Zondervan.
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