Health Literacy Assignment: Nursing Practice and Error Analysis

This assignment delves into various aspects of health literacy within the nursing context. It begins by comparing health issues between Hispanic and Asian American populations, highlighting disparities in access to care and prevalent diseases. The assignment then reflects on a simulation exercise regarding safer opioid use, exploring the student's experience in empowering a patient to make lifestyle modifications despite barriers. It discusses strategies used to improve patient health literacy, comparing them to those used in the simulation and assessing their effectiveness. The student identifies challenges encountered in enhancing health literacy, particularly with patients from different cultural backgrounds, and proposes solutions. Finally, the assignment examines active and latent errors in healthcare, providing examples from clinical experience and suggesting methods to prevent such errors and support better patient care. The student emphasizes the importance of clear communication, cultural sensitivity, and the use of visual aids to enhance patient understanding and adherence to treatment plans.

Running head: HEALTH LITERACY
HEALTH LITERACY
Name of Student:
Name of University:
Author’s Note:

1HEALTH LITERACY
Answer no 1.
Hispanic and Asian American have difference in health due to their education and
economic issue. The Hispanic Americans do not have access to precautionary care and the major
reason for death is cardiovascular disease, accidents, cancer and diabetes. While Asian American
faces the huge issue of COPD, HIV/AIDS, hepatitis B and tuberculosis than Hispanic American
(Fox, Thayer & Wadhwa, 2017).
Answer no 2.
In my nursing practice, yes I have empowered one of my patient of 18 years old who was
undergoing anxiety, mental instability and pain. She used to get anxious at any time and due to
this, she had hurt herself several times. Being a nurse, it is my sole responsibility to engage in
health promotion activities (Fagundes, Weisser & Ganade, 2018). I encouraged my patient about
the lifestyle changes that she needed to bring in her life. I recommended her to get socialize in
community activities, psychotherapy and given opioid medication for her pain (Turner &
McCarthy, 2017). However, her society were keeping orthodox belief of not taking opioid drug. I
motivated her to take as per the guidelines as it will not pose any harm. She understood my
saying and started to take prescribed medication and therapy irrespective of barrier that existed in
her community.
No I do think that there is any strategies used in the simulation exercise that will make
patient informed about the medication or health issue that will improvise the health literacy. This
can be said by noting a point in simulation regarding the context of health literacy is that in
investigation process by health care professional, which was actually a formality, no effort was
given to provide effective education and asked questions from the patients.

2HEALTH LITERACY
As a nurse I have used open-ended questions to assess the understanding and mindset of the
patient. I have provide detailed information about the health and medications to the patient and
use TECH-BACK communication strategies to determine their understating level (Cina &
Cummings, 2018). Additionally, I generally use simple language to make my patient understand
instead of using any scientific terminology. I always encourage my patient to give detail about
their medical history and medication so that effective care can be given. While prescribing any
medication I make use of graphics and pictures rather than any written instruction to make the
patient knowledgeable about health care (Agarwal et al., 2015). In my nursing experience all the
above used strategies have always been effective and given better result. It has helped in
improving the health of my patients because it assisted in making informed decision and
consequently reduces the chance of any health issues.
In my one experience, I have encountered several challenges when trying to enhance the
health literacy of the patients. I was dealing a patient of different ethnicity and culture having
low literacy who was suffering from arthritis. The biggest challenge that I have faced is in
gaining her trust regarding the medication and treatment. She was having her own belief and
perspective about the herbal medication and was not showing any positive view about modern
medication. I was trying to make her understand the importance of modern medication for her
health but she was not in agreement in me. She was having no health related knowledge and
education and it was a difficult situation for me to give her health literacy.
In order to manage the challenge that I was facing, I have make the use of video, pictures
and graphics to make her understand about the effectiveness of medication and treatment given. I
have also tried to communicate in her regional language which has helped in gaining the trust
regarding the health care given (Johnson, 2015).

3HEALTH LITERACY
Active error is the mistake which is happening at frontline in care of patient while latent
error is the faultiness prevailing in the system of health care sector (Rodziewicz & Hipskind,
2019). I can give example of these error by stating my experience. I was involve in care of
patient who was to be given anesthesia for hip surgery. The anesthesia injection was kept in the
drug trolley with other medication. Mistakenly I picked incorrect ampoule of antiseptic solution
which was of same size and color. This error is an example of active error. The antiseptic drug
which was kept in the anesthesia trolley is an example of latent error. Such error can be avoided
by taking conscious step and re-checking of the treatment before giving to the patients.
Rechecking will enable to take effective and error free steps to support the care of patients.

4HEALTH LITERACY
Reference
Agarwal, S., Perry, H. B., Long, L. A., & Labrique, A. B. (2015). Evidence on feasibility and
effective use of mH ealth strategies by frontline health workers in developing countries:
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Cina, A., & Cummings, S. (2018). Open innovation communication: Improving strategy
implementation in the public sector. Policy Quarterly, 14(1).
Fagundes, M., Weisser, W., & Ganade, G. (2018). The role of nurse successional stages on
species‐specific facilitation in drylands: Nurse traits and facilitation skills. Ecology and
evolution, 8(10), 5173-5184.
Fox, M., Thayer, Z., & Wadhwa, P. D. (2017). Assessment of acculturation in minority health
research. Social Science & Medicine, 176, 123-132.
Johnson, A. (2015). Health literacy: how nurses can make a difference. Australian Journal of
Advanced Nursing, The, 33(2), 21.
Rodziewicz, T. L., & Hipskind, J. E. (2019). Medical error prevention. In StatPearls [Internet].
StatPearls Publishing.
Turner, K., & McCarthy, V. L. (2017). Stress and anxiety among nursing students: A review of
intervention strategies in literature between 2009 and 2015. Nurse Education in
Practice, 22, 21-29.