Health Literacy Development through Provider-Patient Interaction on Diabetes

This project aims to develop health literacy about diabetes through provider-patient interaction. It focuses on self-management skills, screening sessions, and proper handling of glucometer. The post-communication strategies include easy language, audio-visual presentations, and teach-back method. Evaluation plans include feedback forms and follow-up sessions.

Running head: PROVIDER-PATIENT INTERACTION
PROVIDER-PATIENT INTERACTION
Name of the student:
Name of the university:
Author note:

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Project on health literacy development through provider patient interaction in health promotion
sessions on diabetes:
Part one:
Project goal:
The goal of the project was
 To help the patient in developing health literacy about the disorder of diabetes. The
audience is mainly belonging to the age cohort of 35 to 65 who were mostly exposed to
development of diabetes. The goal of the project is to communicate to the cohort and help
them to develop ideas about the pathophysiology of the disorder and how unmanaged
blood glucose level can affect other organs of the body resulting in threatening situations.
 Secondly, the project also aims to help the patients in developing self-management skills
by which they can manage their blood glucose level and keep them in control through
exercises, diet maintenance and proper medication adherence.
 Third, the project also aims in communicating about the importance of screening sessions
as a preventative measures for diabetes in a regular manner. The patients would also
communicate the methods for handling the glucometer successfully.
Project outcome objectives:
The outcome objectives of the project would be:
 Patients would be able to understand the causes, signs and symptoms, prevalence,
medication and different aspects of the disorder of diabetes properly

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 Patients would be able to undertake self-management interventions by which they can
manage their blood glucose levels successfully. They would be having the ideas about
exercises, physical activities, diet management and medications would be managed to
prevent or overcome the complications of diabetes (Arnold & Boggs, 2015). They would
be able to develop self-coping abilities and feel motivated towards the change.
 Patients would be able to understand the importance of screening sessions at a regular
manner. Moreover, the affected individuals would be able to use their glucometer in
proper ways so as to ensure that their blood glucose level in under control (Betsch et al.,
2016)
Post situation and audience analysis:
Analysis of the situation and the audience helped in understanding the causes of the
failure of the project. Group education sessions were developed thrice a week where each of the
members of the healthcare professional team was the speaker followed by the others in the
subsequent days. It has been found that the verbal discussion of the various important
components of the diabetes education session were not completely understood and remembered
by the audience. The main reasons for the failure of the project were four types of
communication issues. One of the reasons was information overload. Information overload takes
place in communication when excessive flow of data or information results in detrimental
physical, psychological, social as well as computational effects (Edelman et al., 2017). The brain
cannot process the information effectively because of accumulation of too many information
within a very short time resulting the listeners to feel either blank or recover only broken
information. As the professionals had delivered too many information to patients than their brain
could process and this resulted in loss of information to them (Eldredge et al., 2016). Another

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important reason for failure was the absence of any audio-visual presentations, lack of presence
of proper brochures and pamphlets and education materials. Scientists are of the opinion that
when patients are able to view the information described in the education sessions in the form of
audio-visual presentations, short documentaries, diagrammatic representations in pamphlets,
brochures and many others in written form, the retaining power of the audience increases. None
of such education materials were prepared and therefore success rate was low (Fertman et al.,
2016). Another important reason for the failure was the use of technical and scientific jargons
that were not understood. Not all patients and vulnerable individuals had high level of health
literacy, educational achievements and ideas about proper healthy lifestyle behaviors. Under
such situation, use of technical jargons might make them feel confused or may make them feel
upset as they would not be able to understand the information in details (Sharma, 2016). Use of
scientific jargons had resulted in failure of making the patients understand the disorder
successfully. The fourth reason was the absence of teach-back method in the practical sessions
of handling the glucometer. Teach back methods requires the nursing professionals to first
explain about the topic in details and then asking the patients to re-tell the entire session in their
own words. This helps them to identify whether any gaps in their knowledge is present on them.
Such method is not followed and therefore it was not understood whether all patients had learnt
the ways of handling glucometer successfully (Hubbley et al., 2018). It was found that many of
the patients were not able to handle the equipments as they stated that they have either forgotten
or that they were not comfortable or confident with the equipment.

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Post communication objectives:
The new project that would be developed would focus on developing four important aspects of
communication while educating the patient about diabetes management:
 The communication sessions should not cause information overload
 Written communication methods should be introduced
 The communication session should not include any form of jargons and scientific terms
 Teach back method should be followed while educating the patients about the use of the
glucometer for identifying their blood glucose levels successfully.
Part two:
Pots communication strategies:
 The information that should be communicated should be easier and not too much
information would be communicated at one go. There should be small breaks in the
sessions to reduce the chances of communication overload. The patients should be also
encouraged to ask questions and participate in two-way communication so that they do
not get bored or feel information overload (Hornik et al., 2018).
 Written communication methods need to be introduced through development of
pamphlets as well as brochures which the patients can follow when they miss out any
information in the education session as well as in their homes. Audio-visual presentations
also help in communicating in a way that cuts the monotony of verbal education sessions

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and thus these should be included. The pamphlets and brochures should be colorful with
images and easy to understand information in bullet form so that audiences can
understand easily
 The speaker should be preparing the speech in easy language so that all patients coming
from diverse backgrounds can understand irrespective of their health literacy levels and
education backgrounds
 The educators should first communicate and show the patients the ways by which they
can use the glucometer level successfully. Then they would ask the patients to show them
back the ways they have learns to handle the glucometer properly along with the different
insights they have learnt from the session (Rimmer et al., 2016). This would help the
provider to understand whether any gaps exist in the knowledge the patients.
Post action and evaluation plans:
A detailed feedback form should be provided to each patient to fill up after the completion of the
education sessions. Such forms will help in understanding how well the patients have been able
to develop the health literacy levels abut diabetes. Moreover, the patients would be invited in
follow-up sessions where they would be analyzed whether they are following the interventions
taught to them regarding self0manageent. The quality of life of the patients would also help to
know whether they have followed the education sessions successfully. All these would help to
evaluate the success of the projects effectively and understand how well it had contributed in
health and well-being of the patients. Screening sessions would be also conducted to find out
how they have managed their blood glucose levels effectively after the education sessions. This
will also help to know the success rates of the project.

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References:
Arnold, E. C., & Boggs, K. U. (2015). Interpersonal relationships: Professional communication
skills for nurses. Elsevier Health Sciences.
Betsch, C., Böhm, R., Airhihenbuwa, C. O., Butler, R., Chapman, G. B., Haase, N., ... & Nurm,
Ü. K. (2016). Improving medical decision making and health promotion through culture-
sensitive health communication: an agenda for science and practice. Medical decision
making, 36(7), 811-833.
Edelman, C. L., Mandle, C. L., & Kudzma, E. C. (2017). Health promotion throughout the life
span. Elsevier Health Sciences.
Eldredge, L. K. B., Markham, C. M., Ruiter, R. A., Kok, G., Fernandez, M. E., & Parcel, G. S.
(2016). Planning health promotion programs: an intervention mapping approach. John
Wiley & Sons.
Fertman, C. I., & Allensworth, D. D. (Eds.). (2016). Health promotion programs: from theory to
practice. John Wiley & Sons.
Sharma, M. (2016). Theoretical foundations of health education and health promotion. Jones &
Bartlett Publishers.
Hubley, J., & Copeman, J. (2018). Practical health promotion. John Wiley & Sons.
Hornik, R. (2018). Public health education and communication as policy instruments for
bringing about changes in behavior. In Social marketing (pp. 45-58). Psychology Press.

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Rimmer, J. H., & Hsieh, K. (2016). Health promotion. In Health Care for People with
Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities across the Lifespan (pp. 1087-1103).
Springer, Cham.