Improving professional health literacy in hospitals: study protocol of a participatory codesign and implementation study

Abstract

IntroductionIn connection with a hospital stay, patients have to make important health-related decisions. They need to find, understand, assess and apply health-related information, and therefore, require health literacy. Adequately responding to the needs of patients requires promoting the communication skills of healthcare professionals within healthcare organisations. Health-literate healthcare organisations can provide an environment strengthening professionals’ and patients’ health literacy. When developing health-literate healthcare organisations, it has to be considered that implementing organisational change is typically challenging. In this study, a communication concept based on previously evaluated communication training is codesigned, implemented and evaluated in four clinical departments of a university hospital.Method and analysisIn a codesign phase, focus group interviews among employees and patients as well as a workshop series with employees and hospital management are used to tailor the communication concept to the clinical departments and to patients’ needs. Also, representatives responsible for the topic of health literacy are established among employees. The communication concept is implemented over a 12-month period; outcomes studied are health literacy on the organisational and patient levels. Longitudinal survey data acquired from a control cohort prior to the implementation phase are compared with data of an intervention cohort after the implementation phase. Moreover, survey data from healthcare professionals before and after the implementation are compared. For formative evaluation, healthcare professionals are interviewed in focus groups.Ethics and disseminationThe study protocol was approved by the Ethics Committee of the Medical Faculty of the University of Oldenburg and is in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki. Study participants are asked to provide written informed consent. The results are disseminated via direct communication within the hospital, publications and conference presentations. If the intervention turns out to be successful, the intervention and implementation strategies will be made available to other hospitals.Trial registration numberDRKS00019830.

Organizational Health Literacy in a Hospital—Insights on the Patients’ Perspective

“…Data were collected within the PIKoG study ‘As made for us—Improving professional health literacy in hospitals’ [ 56 ]. The study aims at co-designing, implementing, and evaluating a communication concept for clinical departments of a hospital.…”

Health literacy and the role of therapeutic professionals: A scoping review / Gesundheitskompetenz und die Rolle der Therapieberufe: Ein scoping Review

“…The results of the included studies showed, in all cases, that training leads to a broader understanding of HL as a concept in therapeutic professionals. Especially the identification of HL needs, the use of less jargon, raising self-efficacy, and the awareness of adaptations in patient interaction were influenced (Attard et al, 2021;Bird et al, 2022;Finlay et al, 2019;Kaper et al, 2018;Kaper et al, 2019;Koenig & Provident, 2019;Lubasch et al, 2021;Miller-Scott, 2014;Muscat et al, 2021;Toibin et al, 2017). Educational programs should feature general information about HL, techniques to modify therapy for patients with low HL, and giving practical examples (Brown, 2016).…”