Development of A Health Literacy Plan: A Collaborative Leadership Model

According to the Institute of Medicine, health literacy is defined as the degree to which individuals have the capacity to obtain, process and understand basic health information and services needed to make appropriate health decisions. It is the result of the interactions of the health care system and an individual and is dependent on individual, cultural and systemic factors. Health Literacy impacts the quality of care, costs of healthcare and health outcomes of patients.  As a systemic problem, it requires a comprehensive and collaborative venture to ameliorate. As professionals in the field we are charged by ethics and governmental mandates to take a leadership role in addressing health literacy. Believing the words of Dr. Howard Koh, Assistant Secretary for Health, in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services who stated that “health literacy is the currency for all we do”, this paper and presentation outlines the efforts of a University to take on that leadership role to address health literacy needs. The subsequent multi- tiered plan focused on leadership and advocacy, collaboration within the school (among nursing, health care administration, health sciences and public health), the university, and the professional community; research to build and share knowledge; education within the university and in hospitals and healthcare facilities; plans to assist facilities in redesign onsite navigation to be user friendly; and evaluation tools to assess progress and next steps. Utilization of faculty, students and interns within the process and project were essential.  The lessons learned and the developed plan will be shared