Pilot health literacy needs and responsiveness study in Sydney District Nursing

This pilot study aims to identify and measure the health literacy needs of patients receiving care from Sydney District Nursing and to design and implement a health literacy professional development module for Sydney District Nursing staff focused on improving staff health literacy responsiveness.

Chief investigators

• Mark Harris - Executive Director, Centre for Primary Health Care and Equity, UNSW
• Miranda Shaw - General Manager, RPA Virtual Hospital, Sydney Local Health District (SLHD), Adjunct Senior Lecturer, Centre for Primary Health Care and Equity, UNSW Medicine
• Cassandra Dearing – Director of Nursing, Sydney Local Health District (SLHD) Community Health Services
• Fiona Haigh - Director, Health Equity Research and Development Unit (HERDU)
• Shoko Saito - Research Officer, Health Equity Research and Development Unit (HERDU)
• Freya Raffan - Patient Experience and Service Development Manager, RPA Virtual Hospital, Sydney Local Health District (SLHD) Associate Professor Fiona Haigh HERDU, UNSW
• Cathelijne van Kemenade - Senior Project Officer, Health Equity Research and Development Unit (HERDU)

Project Rationale

The health system is becoming more complex to access and navigate.  There are increases in: 

• the complexity of receiving and navigating health care (many treatment options, services and settings); 
• expectations that patients will engage in self-management of their long-term conditions;
• involvement of patients in shared decision making; and
• the amount and number of sources of information of variable quality about health that patients and community members use.

Low health literacy can be a barrier to accessing appropriate health care, high quality patient-provider communication and self-management. Low health literacy follows a social gradient. Patients and communities who speak a language other than English and from low SES backgrounds are more likely to have low health literacy and have less capacity to cope with the above complexities. Consequently, they are more likely to suffer adverse events and health outcomes and to be less able to make optimal use of health services.

One strategy to improve equity in health outcomes and access for people with low health literacy may be for providers to be trained to be more responsive to the needs of people with different health literacy profiles. Currently, provider training in health literacy tends to be quite generic and to focus on the effectiveness of communication (e.g. through learning the ‘teach-back’ technique). Developing health literacy profiles of patients in the community will enable providers to be trained to address and to be more responsive to specific health literacy needs.

Project Aim/s

• Identify and measure the health literacy needs of patients receiving care from Sydney District Nursing
• Design and implement a health literacy professional development module for Sydney District Nursing staff focused on improving staff health literacy responsiveness.
• Evaluate training module

Project Design and Method

Stage 1: Focus group with Sydney District Nursing staff to identify staff perceptions of the main health literacy needs of their patient cohort

Stage 2: Sydney District Nursing staff will administer a short health literacy questionnaire to their clients based on the needs identified in stage 1

Stage 3: The research team will develop a professional development module based on the findings of stage 2 to improve the health literacy responsiveness of Sydney District Nursing staff to their patient's needs

Stage 4: Delivery of training module.  Follow up of patients and staff to identify any changes in responsiveness to patients

Contact

Fiona Haigh
Email: f.haigh@unsw.edu.au

Key Partners

Sydney Local Health District

Funding

Sydney Local Health District