Abstract
Introduction:Health professional education for health literacy has been identified as having the potential to improve patient outcomes and has been recognized as such in policy developments. Health literacy is an emerging concept encompassing individuals’ skills and how health information is processed in relation to the demands and complexities of the surrounding environment. Focus has been predominantly on the dimension of functional health literacy (reading, writing and numeracy), although increasing emphasis has been placed on interactive and critical domains. Such dimensions can guide the development of health professional education programmes and bridge the gap in the interaction between health professionals and their patients. Currently little is known about qualified health professional’s education for health literacy, its development, implementation or evaluation.Aim:To identify and map current educational interventions to improve health literacy competencies and communication skills of qualified health professionals.Methods:A scoping review will be conducted drawing on methods and guidance from the Joanna Briggs Institute, and will be reported according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analyses extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR) Checklist. This study will retrieve literature on health professional education for health literacy through a comprehensive search strategy in the following databases: CINAHL; Medline (Ovid); the Cochrane Library; EMBASE; ERIC; UpToDate; PsycINFO and Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL). Grey literature will be searched within the references of identified articles: Lenus; ProQuest E-Thesis Portal; the HSE health research repository and RIAN. A data charting form will be developed with categories agreed by the research team, including: article details, demographics, intervention details, implementation and evaluation methods.Conclusion:Little is known about the extent and nature of the current evidence base therefore in order to identify programmes and consolidate their demographics and characteristics within health literacy competencies and communication skills, a scoping review is warranted.
Highlights
Health professional education for health literacy has been identified as having the potential to improve patient outcomes and has been recognized as such in policy developments
Little is known about the extent and nature of the current evidence base in order to identify programmes and consolidate their demographics and characteristics within health literacy competencies and communication skills, a scoping review is warranted
Current educational health literacy interventions aimed at qualified health professionals need to be identified to collate the current evidence base and provide a comprehensive narrative pertaining to the characteristics, including their generic or any disease specific focus, methodologies and assessments used
Summary
Health professional education for health literacy has been identified as having the potential to improve patient outcomes and has been recognized as such in policy developments. Focus has been predominantly on the dimension of functional health literacy (reading, writing and numeracy), increasing emphasis has been placed on interactive and critical domains. Such dimensions can guide the development of health professional education programmes and bridge the gap in the interaction between health professionals and their patients. The majority of the literature focuses on functional HL, there has been increasing emphasis on the development of the interactive dimension of HL This has been evident within health professional education, where programmes have been developed to improve HL competencies and communication skills[9,10]. This communication takes place within the ‘oral exchange’ between the patient and professional, recognizing the role of oral communication within HL and enhancing patientpractitioner interaction[13]
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