Roles of Nursing in Improving the Patients Health Literacy - Essay Example

Nurses must respond to their call of promoting a health-literate society by undertaking active roles in health literacy. They have ethical and professional obligations to communicate clearly and in purposeful ways that address the needs of patients. Communication should go beyond the traditional methods that involve writing and talking. They can use other means of communication such as analogies and stories that relate to health concerns. Nurses should also use evidence-based strategies to promote health literacy.

They should be bold and creative enough to incorporate drawings, pictures, and illustrations when attending to patients. Such models can help patients understand complicated health issues such as medication management and surgical procedures. In addition, nurses can validate the understanding of patients by questioning them (CAN, 2014). Credible Sources for Evaluating Online Health InformationThe online health information used by patients should be from trusted and credible sources. University, hospital, government agencies, and medical journals are some of the online resources that offer evidence-based information.

Other checks consumers can perform are to check when the information was updated, whether it was reviewed before posting or not, and whether the site presents opinions or facts. Sourcing for health information from the sites described above assures patients that what they learn is beneficial and cannot be detrimental to them (UCSF, 2014). Additional Strategies to Becoming Informed Online Health Information ConsumersAlthough there are no rules that dictate the validity of the information found online, there are some strategies consumers can use to reap big from online information.

Patients should ensure the information they use to have an identifiable author and source. The information should not be promotional in any way.