Gesundheitskompetenz und Pflege – eine Analyse der professionsbezogenen Förderung von Gesundheitskompetenz bei Patient*innen in der akutstationären Versorgung

Healthcare organisations and healthcare professionals have a substantial impact on promoting health literacy among their patients. This study examines whether and how nurses in hospitals support their patients in accessing, understanding, evaluating and applying health information (dimensions of health literacy according to Sørensen et al.).

We accompanied 12 nurses in six hospitals for 4 h using participant observation and ad hoc interviews. The data were analysed using content structure analysis.

Nurses are an important resource for patients in accessing health information in the acute inpatient setting. Although most nurses are not familiar with the concept of health literacy, they promote it in different ways depending on the level of individual patient-centeredness. The dimensions of “access” and “understanding” are supported more often than the dimensions of “appraise” and “apply”.

In order to improve the health literacy of patients in hospitals, an understanding of the relevance of health literacy for health professionals is essential. Hence, structures and processes are needed that enable health professionals to act in a way that promotes health literacy in everyday life. At the same time, health literacy needs to be systematically integrated into education and training.