Health literacy is very important in nursing informatics. The Institute of Medicine (IOM)
explains health literacy as the capacity of an individual to obtain and understand basic health
information to make appropriate health decisions (Nelson & Staggers, 2018). Reading about
health problems, taking medications, and making doctor appointments is not enough to say that
an individual is health literate. Understanding why a health problem exists and the reason for
taking medications, diet changes, physical therapy, etc are necessary information for a patient.
Patients tend to understand written information during the hospital stay because the
disease process may cause anxiety and other issues that may affect the ability to retain
information. Upon discharge, giving a lot of written information to the patient about the disease
process, surgery, medications, etc. allows the patient to be able to look over the result of the
hospital stay and why certain things were done (Haruna & Hu, 2018). This information is pulled
from the patient’s electronic health record and is an example of how health literacy is related to
nursing informatics. Effective discharge communication is crucial to ensure the patient
understands what is to be done after leaving the hospital (Siegrist et al., 2018). However, past
research suggests that discharge communication recall and comprehension is poor (Siegrist et al.,
2018).
Patients search the internet for information on everything, including health information.
Sometimes as a result, patients have a misconception of medical diagnoses and/or procedures.
This is when the nurse is cued. Nurses have the responsibility of assessing the patient’s health
literacy to ensure the patient understands all information provided to them. Health information
literacy has been seen as a need in the social media arena (Roberts, Callahan, & O’Leary, 2017).
Use of the tools provided by social media networks can assist in educating the public to ensure a
higher level of health literacy (Roberts, Callahan, & O’Leary, 2017). However, since personal
and health information is required to be protected by all healthcare organizations by the Health
Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), many healthcare providers are reluctant
to use social media.
A lack of general literacy in society can be part of the problem but one can be very
literate and still not be health literate (Siegrist et al, 2018). Even the most literate patients
struggle with understanding health care, doctor’s explanation, and/or discharge instructions.
Younger patients can be seen surfing the internet about things the doctor or nurse just told them.
But the elderly population may not understand how to even get on the internet.
To assess an individual’s health literacy and digital literacy using a mix of existing and
newly developed scales, the eHealth literacy assessment toolkit (eHLA) was created (Karnoe,
Furstrand, Christensen, Norgaard, & Kayser, 2018). The use of digital technologies to search,
comprehend, communicate and apply health information to maintain health is the definition of
eHealth literacy according to Karnoe et al (2018).
Karnoe et al (2018) developed eHLF (eHealth Literacy Framework) which consists of the
following seven dimensions: the ability to process information, engagement in one’s own health,
the ability to engage with digital services, being able to feel safe and in control, be motivated to
engage with digital services, have access to digital services, and digital services that meet the
individual’s needs. Based on these seven dimensions, an instrument for measuring eHealth
literacy was developed (Karnoe et al., 2018).
Griffith, A. M. & Ford, J. (2017). eHealth literacy: How to choose quality internet
electrophysiology patient recourses. Pacing Clin Electrophysiology, 40, 1188-1192.
https://doi.org/10.1111/pace.13172
Haruna, H., & Hu, X. (2018). International trends in designing electronic health information
literacy for health sciences students: A systematic review of the literature. The Journal of
Academic Librarianship, 44(2), 300-312.
Karnoe, A., Furstrand, 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.
https://doi-org.ezproxy.liberty.edu/10.2196/jmir.8347
Nelson, R., & Staggers, N. (2018). Theoretical foundations of health informatics. In R. Nelson
& N. Staggers, Health in
formatics: An interprofessional approach (13-14). St. Louis,
MO: Elsevier.
Roberts, M., Callahan, L., & O’Leary, C. (2017). Social media: A path to health literacy.
Information Services & Use, 37(2), 177-187. https://doi.org/10.3233/ISU-170836
Siegrist, V., Langewitz, W., Mata, R., Maiori, D., Hertwig, R., & Bingisser, R. (2018). The
influence of information structuring and health literacy on recall and satisfaction in a
simulated discharge communication. Patient Education and Counseling, 101(12), 2090-
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