Health Literacy in Nursing: Providing Person-Centered Care

As a 'seasoned' RN I thought I knew all there is about teaching patients and caregivers - then I read Health Literacy in Nursing - and it opened my eyes to the huge gaps there is in my knowledge and understanding of health education. I would dare to say that its the same for other nurses. We have the knowledge and the desire to teach, but we rarely stop to think about how effective our teaching methods are, and if we are truly helping our patients.In this book Dr. Parnell providers clinicans with the tools to assess how they are communicating with patients, and chapters of practical knowledge of how we can do it better. This book should be part of every facilites continuing education program, and if you are looking for a Christmas gift for your favorite doctor or therapsit this is it! Although the book is wirtten for nurses, all health care professionals would benefit from reading it.

I loved this book! Dr. Terri Ann Parnell truly captures ‘the magnitude of the issue’ of health literacy and provides her audience with a wealth of information and resources. I found her real life case scenarios and step by step guidance extremely valuable. As a home care nurse and clinical instructor, her nursing strategies to improve communication have been very helpful to me and are easily applicable in all patient care settings. This book has enhanced both my practice and my students' clinical experiences. A terrific book for any nursing or health-professional curriculum!

Dr. Parnell wrote an excellent book on various aspects of health literacy. There is evidenc-based information on the effect of low health literacy on patient outcomes. She presents strategies for effective oral and written communication in every patient encounter. There are chapters on health literacy and unique populations: end-of life, pediatrics, mental health disorders and older adults. This book was in invaluable resource for my dissertation on health literacy.

Im a CHES. This will help build my curriculum.

This book was required for my BSN program, and it's pretty thorough.

Great resource for nurses and others to gain more understanding and skill in health literacy.

I absolutely loved this book, I wish I had known about this book few months ago. When I was doing my assignments on Health Literacy in previous courses, I referred to several articles and resources like AHRQ website etc. When I read this book last week, I was like wow the author compiled all the research so well in this book and I wish I had read this book first. I am thankful to the author for organizing the book so well with different age group, different issues, different framework and models, providing excellent examples, and real life scenarios. I was particularly shocked when I read the scenario about 60 years old men who could not read to his grandkids and his wife did not know for 40 years of their marriage that he could not read. If his wife did not know then how can nurses assume patient understood the instructions given to them. I also, enjoyed the sections on verbal and written communications techniques and how I can make an impact on my organization by educating nurses on how to say things.

I recommend this book! Low health literacy is a costly issue that health systems largely overlook in healthcare as a factor in ED recidivism, later diagnoses, 30 day readmissions and poor patient outcomes. Moreover, patients understanding their diagnoses, treatments and care is a human rights issue and Terri Ann Parnell, DNP, MA, RN, FAAN is one of the national nursing leaders addressing the issue.