Teach-Back Training for Nursing Students: Knowledge and Beliefs After Training for Health Literate Communication

Abstract

For nurses to communicate effectively, they must understand how patients obtain, understand, and use health information to make health decisions, that is, their health literacy (HL) level. A gap in teaching HL communication skills exists in nursing curricula. This study explored nursing students’ knowledge and beliefs about HL communication before and after an HL training. Analysis revealed a significant increase in knowledge after training (Mpre = 9.00, Mpost = 9.89), t(36) = 3.75, p < .001. Participants (84.6 percent) used teach-back technique with simulated patients and identified additional training as an aid to skill building.