Abstract
This study examined student and practising nurses’ health literacy knowledge, and its correlates in Ghana. It was underpinned by an adapted version of the Institute of Medicine’s (IOM) conceptual framework of health literacy. We used convenience and snowball sampling techniques to collect data from 876 nurses (477 student nurses and 399 practising nurses) in a cross-sectional survey from February 2019 to June 2019. The respondents were drawn from all the former ten administrative regions of Ghana. Approximately 75.4% of the respondents had heard of health literacy. However, health literacy knowledge was generally low (average score of 6.6 out of 20) among both groups, with student nurses (average score of 5.8 out of 20) having significantly lower scores than practising nurses (average score of 7.4 out of 20). Factors associated with health literacy knowledge among student nurses included gender (male, B = −0.499, p < 0.01), trust in others (B = −0.874, p < 0.001), cultural values (B = 0.276, p < 0.001), year of study (B = 0.244, p < 0.05), and frequency of curative care use (B = −0.236, p < 0.05). For practising nurses, trust (B = −1.252, p < 0.01), cultural values (B = 0.357, p < 0.01), and working experience (B = 0.612, p < 0.01) were associated with their health literacy knowledge. Thus, responses targeted at gaps in health literacy knowledge of student and practising nurses must be sensitive to personal characteristics (e.g., gender), social values (e.g., issues of trust, and cultural beliefs and practices), as well as factors relating to nursing education and experience.
Highlights
Health systems globally require the public and patients to participate in health service delivery [1,2]
75.4% of them had heard of health literacy, which was significantly higher among student nurses
We found evidence that factors relating to all three aspects of the adapted health literacy framework were associated with the nurses’ health literacy knowledge
Summary
Health systems globally require the public and patients to participate in health service delivery [1,2]. The public must be knowledgeable or sufficiently educated on the fundamental and, where applicable, intricate aspects of health service delivery, including how the health system operates to ensure efficiency and, desirable health outcomes. To achieve this objective, health professionals, nurses, must play a decisive part because their role is typically at the interface between the public and patients needing healthcare. Health professionals, nurses, must play a decisive part because their role is typically at the interface between the public and patients needing healthcare They are the largest patient education providers and are best placed to transmit the requisite health information [2,3,4,5] to the public and their patients. Nurses must be able to assess deficiencies in patient health literacy and prepare them to participate in their healthcare programmes [4,9]
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