Active-learning strategies to develop health literacy knowledge and skills

Area of Science:

• Pharmacy Education
• Health Literacy Research
• Patient Communication Strategies

Background:

• Low health literacy poses a significant barrier to effective patient care and health outcomes.
• Pharmacy students require specific training to identify and assist patients with limited health literacy.
• Traditional didactic methods may not adequately prepare students for real-world patient interactions.

Purpose of the Study:

• To implement and evaluate active-learning exercises within a required pharmacy curriculum.
• To assess the impact of these activities on students' knowledge of health literacy.
• To measure changes in students' confidence when communicating with patients with low health literacy.

Main Methods:

• Incorporated a 6-session health literacy module featuring active-learning activities.
• Activities included: health literacy assessments, identifying patient cues, mock counseling, readability analysis, and patient material creation.
• Utilized pretest/posttest and retrospective pretest designs to measure knowledge and confidence.

Main Results:

• Significant increase in students' knowledge of health literacy concepts demonstrated by pretest/posttest data.
• Retrospective pretest indicated enhanced student confidence in managing patients with low health literacy.
• In-class discussions corroborated the acquisition of new knowledge through active engagement.

Conclusions:

• Active-learning exercises are an effective pedagogical approach for teaching health literacy to pharmacy students.
• The study demonstrates a successful integration of practical skills development into the pharmacy curriculum.
• These findings support the use of experiential learning to improve future pharmacists' ability to address health disparities.