A message said is not necessarily a message understood. For patient-provider interactions, in which healthcare professionals can often overestimate a patient’s health literacy, this can be very true. Depending on a patient’s understanding of their own health and a provider’s ability to communicate information in laymen terms, a lot of context can be missed.
From self-reported health knowledge, to preventative behaviors, chronic disease management, and hospitalization, individuals with limited health literacy fare worse than health literate ones.11 Even more unsettling is that minority racial and ethnic groups, and those who are socioeconomically disadvantaged, elderly or immigrants, are disproportionately limited in their health literacy.12 This can lead to patients avoiding care entirely, non-adherence to medication, higher medical costs, and an inefficient path to recovery.13,14
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An estimated 41% of Latinos lack basic health literacy skills.15
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For healthcare professionals (currently practicing or in-training), this is an area that simulation training can offer vast improvement. In addition to developing cultural competence, learners can deliberately work to strengthen their interpersonal communication skills to facilitate healthy patient-provider conversations. This can include earning a patient’s trust, helping a patient communicate his or her needs, and facilitating shared decision-making when weighing treatment options.16
Research of baccalaureate nursing students showed that simulation evoked learners’ empathy and impacted their future communication with patients.17 A separate study showed that clinical simulation can be used to elicit students’ attitudes toward cross-cultural situations and subsequently improve communication and nursing skills.18 By developing learner empathy and skills, providers are better prepared to interview, communicate medical information, and provide treatment to patients from diverse ethnic and racial backgrounds.
If you’re looking at ways for your learners to develop in their sensitivity toward patients of a racial or ethnic minority, you may want to consider simulation training as a solution. Learners can enhance their patient assessment skills by taking a mindful approach to health literacy, which may lead to more accurate diagnoses, better medication adherence, and more lives saved.