Essays on Health Literacy

Health Promotion

The patient had lost hope of recovery from drug addiction and could only choose to continue abusing until his untimely passing. On the contrary, after an engagement on the safer ways for Opioid use, I was able to influence him to modify his lifestyle decisions to guarantee improvement in health by limiting the side effects of the drug (District Hospital of Columbia Association, 2015). For example, the patient chose to engage more on the physical activity participation. By doing this, their bodies would increase fitness and hence enhance the metabolic functions affected by unhealthy methods of Opioid use. Additionally, ...

Q1: How can health care bridge the gap between those who are internet savvy and those who are not? The access gap between the internet savvy patients and those who are not is an information journey that begins with an online search activity, often using a commercial search engine, such as Google. As early as this stage, a gap already exists between the savvy and the non-savvy internet users, such as the digital divide and search strategy problems. The first gap involves the access to computer or the internet itself. It is particularly existent among elderly adults, disabled, or ...

Mental wellbeing has in the recent past attracted a lot of attention from stakeholders in the health industry after they noted that holistic caring of a patient must involve ensuring mental wellness. In the past, this section of healthcare was overlooked, as mental diseases were not considered ‘illnesses’ but were rather thought to be associated with witchcraft. As a result, any person exhibiting signs of mental illness was shunned and secluded from the community and family members, until he/she passed on. Mental healthcare has as a result lagged behind in terms of providing quality care services to affected patients. ...

As per the Affordable Care Act (ACA), health literacy can be defined as, “ The ability of an individual to make informed decisions with respect to obtain, communicate, process, and understand information pertaining to healthcare” Based on the annual report published by the ACA, only 12% of the US adult population is considered to be proficient in health literacy while 1/3rd of the population suffers from healthcare illiteracy and suffer from making common health decisions Based on the same report, more than 75% of patients suffer from healthcare associated decisions since most patients tend to forget more than half of ...

Introduction

The World Health Organization (n.d) defines substance abuse as the harmful or hazardous uptake of psychoactive chemicals, including illicit drugs and alcohol. According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse (2014), substance abuse refers to the use of legal or illegal drugs inappropriately. This term includes the repeated use of drugs for pleasure, stress alleviation or reality alteration as well as the use of prescription medicines in other ways than prescribed (NIDA, 2014). Substance abuse and addiction can lead to potentially fatal diseases such as lung disease, HIV/AIDS, cardiovascular problems, cancer, and hepatitis (Marsiglia et al., 2014). People who ...

Healthcare plays a critical role in determining the socio-economic wellbeing of a country. Environmental, individual, community, and personal health have been identified as a critical determinant of productivity in a society. Access to and quality of treatment as well as treatment outcomes are affected by various factors, among them, community, family, and personal attitudes to healthcare. Personal principles, cultural practices, religious beliefs, as well as health literacy levels influence attitudes (Helman, 2007). Social, cultural, economic, religious, and health literacy levels significantly influence perceptions about healthcare in Egypt. Social stratifications along ethnicity and family ties in Egypt have made personal ...

Search Method

For the purposes of this paper an electronic search was conducted using the following databases: CINAHL Complete ProQuest Health & Medical Collection Ovid Health Source: Nursing/Academic Edition Google Scholar The search parameters included English-only, peer-reviewed articles published between the years 2010 and 2016. The following keywords were used in the search: Postpartum depression Screening Quantitative Program Education The search produced a total of 1772 publications. The abstracts from these articles were screened and six studies were determined to be relevant to postpartum depression education and screening programs. Among these studies were one systematic review, one quantitative cohort study, two qualitative ...

Access to health services is important because the timely use of health services will improve the best health outcomes (Healthy People 2020, 2016). It also makes a significant difference to the quality of life that people live. Lecca, Quervalu, Nunes and Gonzales (2013) define inaccessibility as one that may either be too costly or never a part of the practitioner's comprehensive approach to therapy and treatment. It is unfortunate that not everyone has the opportunity to obtain a timely health care service due to several reasons which include the inaccessible health insurance services, lack of education about the available ...

Roseola also known as exanthema subitum or Sixth disease is a viral infection caused by human herpesvirus 6 (HHV-6) common in infants and young children. The pathognomonic sign of roseola infantum is the development of acute high fever and febrile seizure. Commonly after defervescence, a rubelliform eruption or rash occurs. A clinical exam is needed to diagnose roseola and the treatment is symptomatic (Caserta, 2014). To patients who are immunosuppressed, HHV-6 is a major cause of morbidity and mortality. HHV-6B can also cause CNS disease in these immunocompromised patients ("Roseola Infantum", 2016).

Pathophysiology

The transmission of the HHV-6 is airborne, ...

For the population to remain in good health, information is very important. Patients face fewer risks and stay healthier when they stay informed. Therefore, in the health sector, communication is an essential thing in achieving best results in health. In order to achieve better system of relaying information efficiently, clear and understandable forms of sharing information is vital. Just like other professions, there is need to understand and apply proper communication structure in health sector in order to achieve good results and a strong relationship between stakeholders and patients. Achieving it requires education and training so as to equip ...

Colorectal cancer can be treated to remission when it is detected early. This underscores the importance of screening for colorectal cancer (Miller et al., 2011). There is an increased incentive for screening for colorectal cancer considering that colorectal cancer ranks fourth among the top causes death for non-cutaneous cancers and an even higher second rank when all cancers are considered. Even with these incentives for compliance with screening protocols, Miller et al., (2011) finds that the compliance rates are still low and attributes it to several factors. These findings that are corroborated by Hernandez, Chowdhury, Fleming & Griffith, (2011) who ...

Advanced nursing practice is recognized as an advanced level of nursing care that uses in-depth nursing knowledge and nursing expertise to meet health care needs. Unlike traditional nursing practice, advanced nursing practice involves numerous streams of activities like: analysis, knowledge synthesis, critical thinking, decision making, interpreting, evidence based practice and managerial/administrative roles. The evolution of advanced nursing practitioners happened when nurses were expected to take extra responsibility in addition to their traditional role. Due to lack of a sufficient number of doctors to attend to people in remote areas and in families, nurses were given the added responsibility to ...

Information Literacy: Scholarship Practice and Leadership

Information Literacy: Scholarship Practice and Leadership Leaders face significant challenges in trying to understand and manage complexities of dynamic individuals and groups in an organization. However, with daily observable behavior and practice of leaders that are in line with information literacy, it is possible for leaders to rely on personal and professional competence to integrate feedback from the dynamic workforce and their research to create positives outcomes in the organization. Uniting dynamic groups in an organization calls for disciplined employees, and information literacy plays a big part in it. Turusheva (2009), urges that everyone at professional and personal level ...

The Translation Science Project

The current translation project focuses on colorectal cancer. The translation science project is a contribution to the efforts towards the improvement of the compliance with the screening protocol of colorectal cancer for Latin America patients aged between 50 and 70 years in a community health setting in Miami-Dade. The proposed project’s objective will help to determine how health care staff utilizes evidence-based practices (EBP) CRC screening protocol to improve compliance among Latin population aged 50 to 70 years old. In this project, the population of interest will consist of Latin American patients aged between 50 to 70 years ...

CDC (2012) defines social media as online communication tools that facilitate exchange of information, interaction, engagement, and sharing of ideas and other content over networks. In the recent past, the use of social has gained immense popularity, and the healthcare industry has not been left behind. Disease prevention through health promotion depends heavily on shared information, as the information empowers the public on issues affecting their health. Information access has been revolutionalized by social media, and as Heldman, Schindelar & Weaver (2013) posits, it is imperative to take the information to the people. 67% of internet users are active users ...

Reflection on literature search

The four sources identified during the literature search had a lot of significant in addressing the PICO question. The use of search terms made it possible to identify different sources related to the same issue and select the best among the sources for review. The database consists of articles from different authors addressing various issues; hence, making it easier to select the article that has more significance. On the other hand, it became hard identifying an article containing all search terms. Most of the literature search consisted of only two or three search terms, which affected the overall outcome ...

Health literacy refers to the minimum health education standards for all individuals who have attained a grade school level. Nurses are faced with a task of providing health literacy to their patients and other patients in general. However, certain factors limit these professionals as they try to reach these objectives. In the past patients have had a history of making regular visits to their healthcare providers to obtain plausible information pertaining health issues. Nurses would make visits in the communities where members were facing difficulties in accessing this vital information so as to educate them (Huff, 2011). Despite being ...

It is important for nurses to ensure that the society is well educated in matters concerning their health. Additionally, there is the need for them to take part in health promotion programs and educating the population regarding their wellbeing. As such, nurses are obliged to address the unique needs that each patient has with intentions of boosting their self-perception concerning health (Sørensen et al., 2012). The goal of health literacy is that all patients are supposed to act on all the provided information which is critical in ensuring that they come out with optimal outcomes. There is, however, ...

Homebound elderly patients are considered as one of the high-risk populations because of their medical inaccuracies and adverse health outcomes (Stanley, 2010). The health conditions commonly associated with homebound elderly patients include mental disorders, oral disease, food insecurity, and falls. To address these health concerns, interventions and outcome measures were implemented (Feeding America, 2015; Qiu, et al., 2010; Griffin, et al., 2012). The monitoring and evaluation of these health interventions is important especially when it comes to the determination of the effectivity and efficiency of the intervention along with the program delivery. These evaluations do not only provide feedback ...

Abstract

Healthcare reform has of recent become an issue that has attracted public attention globally and is being discussed not only in statehouses but also in public. The major issue with health care reform is the associated cost. The reason for this is that a large percentage of Americans are delaying medical attention and therefore influence medical costs. The postponement of medical treatment means long-term health consequences. Simple conditions gone untreated have turned into chronic to more severe conditions, therefore costing the insurance companies more money to cover these medical treatments. The higher cost in turn are passed on to employers ...