Health Literacy and Website Review

This article discusses the importance of health literacy and the role of Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) in promoting health literacy. It also evaluates a health-related website https://www.mskcc.org/cancer-care/patient-education. The website is about providing education to patients and caregivers about cancer. It is programmed to educate and empower people suffering from cancer, their caregivers, and the public. The website provides online education and support through virtual videos and reaches a large target audience.

RUNNING HEAD: HEALTH LITERACY AND WEBSITE REVIEW
Health literacy and website review
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RUNNING HEAD: HEALTH LITERACY AND WEBSITE REVIEW
Health literacy
Health literacy is basically a capacity that an individual has to access and effective
utilize the health information in order to promote as well as maintain a good health. Health
literacy enables people to understand and communicate all the health concerns. A literate and
educated person may also have limited health literacy or knowledge about health information
available. Health literacy is a concern for everyone who is involved in health promotion,
protection as well as prevention (McGonigle & Mastrian, 2015).
Importance of health literacy
The health literacy capacity of an individual is mediated by education, and the
adequacy is affected by the language, culture and the characteristics of any health-related
settings. The limited health literacy affects the people of all ages, incomes, races,
communities and education. But, the people from poorer family background or having lower
socioeconomic status are more likely to suffer from several issues related to health due to the
lack of health literacy. Researches in this regard clearly indicated that limited health literacy
is associated with worse health outcome as well as higher costs (Batterham, Hawkins,
Collins, Buchbinder & Osborne, 2016). In order to take up a proactive role with respect to the
health and lifestyle of an individual, performing as a n active partner while encountering with
healthcare professionals, health literacy is regarded as an important perquisite. Especially, the
people having one or more chronic health issues are more likely to be benefited from the
knowledge of health information which is health literacy. Patients’ participation in the
healthcare progress is considered as one of the critical determinants of successful disease
management. In general, literacy includes a variety of skills which improves the patients’
health outcome and at the same time it helps in promoting the family-centred care in order to
provide a better quality care. At the same time, it is also important in many ways. It helps the

RUNNING HEAD: HEALTH LITERACY AND WEBSITE REVIEW
patients in understanding all the health related acts and regulations. It is highly essential for
the healthcare system as well the healthcare professionals to inform the acts and regulations
to patients and if the patient is having proper health literacy then it would help in
understanding easily. Again, health literacy improves the communication between patients
and the healthcare providers. Any healthcare encounter must promote a discussion between
the patient and the provider. Having knowledge regarding health information helps a patient
to share their ideas and understanding the others’. Addressing the health literacy concern is
an essential part of patients’ safety agenda and health literacy helps in building a safe and
family-centred health practice (Levy, Janke & Langa, 2015).
Discuss the Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP’s) role in promoting health literacy
The doctor of nursing practice (DNP) is a clinical doctorate that includes clinical
practice and leadership. Nurses, who have earned the degree of doctorate in nursing practice
are prepared to provide organizational and system leadership support in order to improve the
patients’ health outcome. Health literacy is a shared responsibility and nurses as well as
DNP’s play a major role in promoting health literacy among the patients, so that they can be
able to have self-service in chronic disease and the communication can also be improved.
DNPs help in overcoming the barriers of low education as well as the limited health literacy
issue by simplifying the written materials using some plan-language communication (Levy &
Janke, 2016). As healthcare has become increasingly electronic with the growing of
technology, DNPs take initiative to promote health literacy among the patients through
various programs over internet and other sources (Edwards, Coddington, Erler & Kirkpatrick,
2018). Health literacy universal precautions are implemented in the healthcare system by the
nurses and the DNPs. A toolkit is basically a resource that provides evidence based guidance
to the primary care practices in order to reduce the complexity of healthcare. DNPs
implement strategies to prepare nurses to embrace the importance of health literacy and also

RUNNING HEAD: HEALTH LITERACY AND WEBSITE REVIEW
to use the available resources to enhance the literacy skill. There are various health related
websites that shares knowledge regarding health and helps in enriching the health literacy
skill of others. Nurses as well as the DNPs play a major role in explaining the patients about
the importance of health literacy to the patients and therefore, they should know how to
evaluate the health-related websites in order to help the patients in gaining literacy regarding
health (Loan et al., 2018).
Health-related internet resource
URL of the identified health-related website is
https://www.mskcc.org/cancer-care/patient-education
The website is about providing education to patients and the caregivers. The website
is programmed to educate as well as empower the people suffering from cancer, their
caregivers and the public. The website provides online education and support through virtual
videos and reaches a large target audience.
Provider and purpose
Memorial Sloan Kettering (MSK) Cancer Centre is in charge of the website. Craig B.
Thompson is the president and the chief executive officer of MSK. They are providing the
site in order to educate the patients as well as other caregivers and public about cancer. They
also offer some educating video in their educational program in this regard. They have
provided contact number and also they have shared option to find their availability through
location tracking.
Funding
The fundraising operation of MSK maintained strong momentum during 2017, after
campaign. Dedicated benefactors of all levels contributed to the success of the educational

RUNNING HEAD: HEALTH LITERACY AND WEBSITE REVIEW
program. Fundraising from board members and from anonymous helped the website to
conduct successful educational programs. Donating options are available and open in their
website and anyone can donate following the steps provided in the website. The website does
not contain any labelled advertisement.
Information quality
A board of overseas and managers are there who helps in gathering and providing
information along with the scientists consultants of Louis v. Gerstner, jr. Graduate school of
biomedical sciences memorial Sloan Kettering cancer centre. The close collaboration
between the physicians and the scientists associated with MSK helps in providing the best
care and effective strategies to prevent, control and ultimately cure cancer in future. The
content is selected after a thorough research by the scientists involved with this website. The
administration and the scientists regularly review the contents in order to maintain the
accuracy of the information provided in the website. The site not always avoids all kinds of
unbelievable and emotional claims but it tries to resolve them if possible. The site is also up-
to-dated.
Privacy
The site asks personal information if needed for providing care and it always
maintains the privacy policy of the people. In this regard, it is clearly mentioned in the
website that how they follow privacy practice as per HIPAA. They provide a copy of notice
that how the privacy will be maintained. MSK is committed to the individual privacy of every
visitor and the donors. If privacy is maintained as per their statement then everyone should be
comfortable to be a part of it as the privacy policy will be thoroughly protected.
Summary

RUNNING HEAD: HEALTH LITERACY AND WEBSITE REVIEW
On evaluating the health website, it can be said that the main strength of the website is
its donators. Numerous donators are there who are giving success to the fundraising of MSK.
Also, MSK strengthened its by recruiting Luis Diaz as head of the Division of Solid Tumour
Oncology in the Department of Medicine, who also worked as the principle investigator
previously. The workforce of more than 17000 is also a primary strength of the website.
However, there are not so many language options and a limited number of people can access
it. In future, if the website can be reshaped to make it user-friendly and if its accessibility is
increased then it would be more helpful. Enabling more language option would also help in
this regard.

RUNNING HEAD: HEALTH LITERACY AND WEBSITE REVIEW
References
Batterham, R. W., Hawkins, M., Collins, P. A., Buchbinder, R., & Osborne, R. H. (2016).
Health literacy: applying current concepts to improve health services and reduce
health inequalities. Public health, 132, 3-12.
Edwards, N. E., Coddington, J., Erler, C., & Kirkpatrick, J. (2018). The Impact of the Role of
Doctor of Nursing PracticeNurses on Healthcare and Leadership. Medical Research
Archives, 6(4).
Levy, H., & Janke, A. (2016). Health literacy and access to care. Journal of health
communication, 21(sup1), 43-50.
Levy, H., Janke, A. T., & Langa, K. M. (2015). Health literacy and the digital divide among
older Americans. Journal of general internal medicine, 30(3), 284-289.
Loan, L. A., Parnell, T. A., Stichler, J. F., Boyle, D. K., Allen, P., VanFosson, C. A., &
Barton, A. J. (2018). Call for action: Nurses must play a critical role to enhance health
literacy. Nursing outlook, 66(1), 97-100.
McGonigle, D., & Mastrian, K. G. (Eds.). (2015). Nursing informatics and the foundation of
knowledge. Jones & Bartlett Publishers.
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Centre. (n.d.). Patient and Caregiver Education. Retrieved
from https://www.mskcc.org/cancer-care/patient-education