Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality

Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality

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After reviewing this website, I was pleased by the initiative to ensure that health is understood by anybody. Their objectives include ensuring that healthcare is comprehensible, less complicated, and patients are supported and understand healthcare despite their literacy levels. This way all patients will be in a position to take care or manage their health without a medical professions presence. It is not uncommon that people don’t pay attention to health unless they are unwell or someone close to them. Therefore, medical professionals need to be understood that most of the patients are not health literate and therefore there is a standard way of communicating to ensure that they understand health.

Patients need to learn how to take care of their health and this can be done through education and creating awareness of the dangers of some practices on their health. Communication is also very important in any health facility not only to understand the patient but also to help them understand the treatment they are receiving. Communication allows the caregivers to follow up after the patient has been discharged. Also, it allows them to understand and respect different cultures, beliefs as well as customs. This way they are given quality care and ensure that patients are satisfied with the services. It allows them to ask questions, involve them in creating the plan for care, encouraging them to give feedback, and helping them remember when they are supposed to take their medication.

Some of the strategies that I would implement to improve health literacy will include utilizing technology such as wearable devices to monitor her health. Having graphics and images that are universal are important to ensure that patients understand health care. Using plain language is also effective to ensure that those who do not speak English as their first language understand healthcare. There are mobile apps that could be used by the patients to engage in telemedicine where they can contact nurses who understand their customs, beliefs, and language.