Staying Well: A Training for Understanding, Remembering, and Making Informed Decisions

Abstract

Low health literacy can cause poor health outcomes, and anyone can have low health literacy regardless of age, gender, race, ethnicity, education, or class. Efforts to reduce health literacy have focused primarily on healthcare practitioners, and little effort has been put toward educating patients. To remedy this, a health literacy articulated training was developed. Staying Well: a training for understanding, remembering, and making informed decisions is an interactive and self-paced educational presentation lasting 20-30 minutes. Grounded in the asset model of health literacy, systems theory, and social learning theory, the Staying Well demonstrates simple analytical skills that support greater knowledge of health problems and how to manage them, better health outcomes, and confidence in healthcare decision-making. Participants were patients at in-patient healthcare settings who were at least 18 years old, and who did not have cognitive or other health issues limiting their ability to participate. Pre- and post-surveys measured participants' knowledge of their health condition, awareness of preventable health risks, use of the demonstrated skills, and confidence in healthcare decision-making. If you would like to use this intervention, please contact the author at caitlin.simmons@gmail.com