Literacy and Information Technology Skills

Abstract:

The goal of this assignment is to associate health literacy, information literacy, and information technology skills with a focus on how the development of these concepts within disciplines. Also, how certain cultures may understand medical information and what medical staff should do to make sure patients understand information that is giving to him or her. This paper will also contain information on the difference between healthcare literacy and information literacy, and when they both presented in the literature. Knowing how to evaluate, identify, apply, find, and acknowledge sources of information that make-up information literacy. Since information literacy is something that develops as a person grow, it is essential to understand how each skill fit together to become literate and how technology has linked to improving patient safety. 

Understanding Information Literacy

There was a time when literature used to be the primary means of finding information, but today we find ourselves continuously with an overwhelming amount of information from a multitude of sources. It can be easy to get loss of where to find scholarly information we need if we do not know where to search. It can also be difficult to compare to the reliability of one source with that of another especially if we do not understand the context of the information, and not knowing how to research the credibility of the author. That is why in this advanced study, nurses need to have skills that will allow better knowledge to determine how to use information effectively. Information literacy could be defined in many ways. It is the ability to locate reliable information, including the ability to evaluate the use of information effectively (Information Literacy, 2017). It could also be characterized as communication information to address a problem or an issue, but the main focus in the information literacy is a set of skills that help people navigate through information overload. Johnston et al. (2014) explain students who have experienced English as a Foreign Language (EFL) may make errors because their native language influences them. There is limited research measuring the knowledge of EFL students of how they experience information literacy. The author explains, there are numerous of people around the world that speaks English as a secondary language (ESL); therefore, it is essential for educators to understand how international students perceive information so that teachers could accommodate and develop curriculum to meet their students. The goal of the research is for the use of phenomenography to discover and to understand situations where students are using EFL or ESL literacy practice. Research has found these to have revealed a significant impact on information literacy by experiences of reading, understanding, evaluating and using information where barriers related to language (Johnston et al., 2014). Evaluate, identify, apply, find, and acknowledge sources of information are the five main components that make-up information literacy (Research Foundations, 2018). Information literacy is something that develops as a person grow, and that is why it is essential to understand how each skill fits together to become literate.

How Health Literacy Affects Each Person

Health literacy is part of normal life; it is the idea to which a person is able to understand, access, evaluate, and communicate information to take part among the demands of different health circumstances to promote and maintain good health through life-course. (Access to Health Services, 2019) It is the understanding and use of information to help allow access to health resources, permit clients to navigate to the healthcare system and enable the client to make appropriate health care decisions. Health literacy can help prevent unexpected health complications and to manage better-unplanned situations that may occur. According to Health Literacy, (2016) one of the problems with health literacy in the United States and many other countries is when organizations create information or steps that are unclear and confusing to follow which creates a contradict the effort to understand the purpose of the situation.

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Limited literacy is when people or organization cause information to be vague. Low health literacy is associated with people with asthma severity, poorer diabetic control, and obesity; moreover, it has been determined to be a higher predictor of outcomes than race/ethnicity, income, and education (Yin et al., 2015). Individuals which poor literacy can have difficulty to comprehend complex, numeracy and unfamiliar information which organization may have available. Yin et al., 2015 further explains a study from the U.S Department of Education had published a data that states, “The study found that adults who self-report the worst health also have the most limited literacy, numeracy, and health literacy skills.” It is crucial to understand that there are humans with adequate literacy who still may have additionally subject comprehending of written and spoken healthcare information due to the fact of the clinical terminology and jargon that is being utilized in the healthcare environment.

According to Yin et al., 2015 professional organization and the American Medical Association finds to improve client health literacy; literacy is essential to address at each healthcare visit. To confirm a client understands direction, healthcare provider refer to the teach-back method. The client would repeat the information in his or her own words. For example, if a patient has a medical order to take a specific task, the show-back method is an effective way to address any misunderstanding. For instance, have the patient count-out how many pills he or she should take daily can be helpful to assure patient knowledge of the number of tablets to take.

Healthcare Literacy and Information Literacy

The term healthcare literacy and information literacy were first presented in different contexts in 1974. Occasionally, the words health literacy used in literature, and it was to address health education standards in United States schools; whereas information literacy appeared in the report to the Information Industry Association to the National Commission on Libraries and Information Science (Lawless et al., 2016). Specialists in medicine and related fields view health literacy has multiple meanings. These specialists describe health literacy as requiring a group of skills such as basic literacy and numeracy skills. An individual can have cognitive and social skills to gain access to understand information and maintain good health; whereas information literacy is associate with the library user for identifying, evaluating, organizing the needed information, etc.

Information Technology Skills

Information technology is growing as technology changes and advances. Technology is an application of science used to solve various problems to simplify our daily lives. The research found a vast improvement in patient care linking to technology. (Hamic et al., 2014) As such, access, safety, efficiency, and care quality. For education and research, it is essential for a primary nurse practitioner to demonstrate computer literacy in their practice. Technology system has data that captures patient information for the purpose to evaluate nursing care. Electronic Health Records (EHRs) are built to go past standard clinical data collected in a provider’s office and are inclusive of a broader aspect of a patient’s care. These data are part of the patient health record and contain patient information for all clinicians who are involved in client care. (Improved Patient Care, 2017). This technology system can improve health care quality by enabling clinicians to view client medical history, view lab, prescribe medication, document and do refer at any remote location.

Information Technology Skills

Technology skill is essential in the medical field because technology is forever expanding. It can assist nurse practitioner in the quality of patient care. A clinician can view patient electronic health records and make a healthcare decision to improve patient outcome (Improved Patient Care, 2017). Health literacy is the ability to which an individual can make health decisions. To confirm client understanding, the nurse practitioner must use simple terms excluding jargon to educate and to practice teach-back methods to evaluate clients understanding (Yin et al., 2015). Since there are so many ways to locate information other than books, it can be easy to lose time trying to find the proper information we need; especially if we do not know where to look. Information literacy is critical to advanced practice nurse in locating credible resources.

References

Access to Health Services. (2019). Retrieved from https://www.healthypeople.gov/2020/topics-objectives/topic/Access-to-Health-Services

Hamric, A. B., Hanson, C. M., Tracy, M. F., & O’Grady, E. T. (2014). Advanced Practice Nursing An Integrative Approach (5 ed.). St. Louis, Missouri: Elsevier Saunders.

Health Literacy. (2016, December 19). Retrieved from https://www.cdc.gov/healthliteracy/learn/Understanding.html

Improved Patient Care Using EHRs. (2017). Retrieved from https://www.healthit.gov/topic/health-it-basics/improved-patient-care-using-ehrs

Information Literacy. (2018). Retrieved from https://www.wesleyan.edu/libr/infoforyou/infolitdefined.html#

Information Literacy. (2017, August 07). Retrieved from https://www.commonsense.org/education/digital-citizenship/information-literacy

Johnston, N., Partridge, H., & Hughes, H. (2014). Understanding the information literacy experiences of EFL (english as a foreign language) students. Reference Services Review, 42(4), 552-568. Retrieved from http://proxy.stu.edu:2048/login?url=https://search.proquest.com/docview/1633971291?accountid=14129

Lawless, J., Toronto, C. E., & Grammatica, G. L. (2016). Health literacy and information literacy: A concept comparison. Reference Services Review, 44(2), 144-162. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/RSR-02-2016-0013

Research Foundations: Information Literacy. (2018). Retrieved from https://libguides.seminolestate.edu/researchfoundations/informationliteracy

Yin, H. S., Jay, M., Maness, L., Zabar, S., & Kalet, A. (2015). Health literacy: An educationally sensitive patient outcome. Journal of General Internal Medicine, 30(9), 1363-1368. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11606-015-3329-z