HEALTH LITERACY AND COMMUNICATION AMONG HEALTH-SYSTEM PHARMACY PRACTITIONERS, PATIENTS, AND OTHER HEALTH CARE PROVIDERS

To foster effective communication (with appropriate attention to patients' levels of general and health literacy) among health-system pharmacy practitioners, patients, and other health care providers; further,

To develop programs to enable pharmacy students, residents, and health-system pharmacy practitioners to self-assess their levels of health literacy and general communication skills; further,

To develop methods with which pharmacy students, residents, and health-system pharmacy practitioners can assess the level of general and health literacy of patients; further, 

To disseminate information about resources for students, residents, and health-system pharmacy practitioners to use in working with patients and others having specific communication needs.

Rationale

Only 12% of Americans have proficient health literacy skills according to the National Assessment of Adult Literacy. The growing diversity of our patient population in the U.S. demands appropriate attention to general and health literacy among health-system pharmacy practitioners, patients, and other healthcare providers to ensure equal access to accurate health information and usable health services. The Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health’s Healthy People 2030 initiative defines health literacy in two ways: personal health literacy is the degree to which individuals have the ability to find, understand, and use information and services to inform health-related decisions and actions for themselves and others; and organizational health literacy is the degree to which organizations equitably enable individuals to find, understand, and use information and services to inform health-related decisions and actions for themselves and others.

Programs that support education and training around self-assessment of health literacy and general communication skills and methods for practitioner assessments of patient health literacy are needed to ensure full adoption and appropriate implementation. Barriers to health literacy include language barriers such as limited English proficiency and communication barriers such as those experienced by the deaf or hard of hearing community. Each of these barriers, along with disability, transportation, and cultural barriers require practice resources to accommodate patients with specific communication needs.