Nurses, how well are you Communicating with your Patients?

According to a recent exploratory study, there is much room for improvement in the education of patients regarding their health care, with much of the onus falling on nurses. So this begs the question, how well are our nursing students being educated to deliver patient education? In fact, are our nursing students being taught the critical issues surrounding health literacy? The study, published in the ANA's Online Journal of Issues in Nursing, urges:

"...health literacy is a topic that should be threaded throughout the entire nursing curriculum and stressed in each clinical rotation.
New nursing graduates need to be able to:
(a) identify patients at risk for not being able to understand and act on health information,
(b) communicate health information and instructions in a way that promotes patient understanding,
(c) check for patient understanding."

Citation: Sand-Jecklin, K., Murray, B., Summers, B., Watson, J., ( July, 23, 2010) "Educating Nursing Students about Health Literacy: From the Classroom to the Patient Bedside " OJIN: The Online Journal of Issues in Nursing Vol. 15 No. 3.
DOI: 10.3912/OJIN.Vol15No03PPT02