Hospitalists' Practices and Barriers to Health-Literate Communication in Pediatric Inpatient Care

Area of Science:

• Pediatric healthcare
• Health communication
• Patient outcomes

Background:

• Health literacy significantly impacts pediatric inpatient care outcomes.
• Pediatric hospitalists are crucial for effective patient communication.
• Challenges exist in addressing health literacy in hospital settings.

Purpose of the Study:

• Evaluate pediatric hospitalists' attitudes toward health literacy.
• Assess current health-literate communication practices and perceived effectiveness.
• Identify barriers hindering health-literate communication in pediatric inpatient care.

Main Methods:

• Multicenter, cross-sectional survey conducted via the Pediatric Research in Inpatient Settings (PRIS) network.
• Survey assessed awareness, communication practices, and barriers using Likert scales and predefined options.
• Descriptive statistics were used for data analysis.

Main Results:

• 55% of surveyed pediatric hospitalists were unaware of the universal precautions approach for health literacy.
• Simple language (98%) and teach-back (87%) were viewed as most effective communication techniques.
• Major barriers included time constraints (95%), lack of multilingual materials (89%), and information complexity (87%).

Conclusions:

• Pediatric hospitalists acknowledge the importance of health literacy.
• Barriers impede consistent application of health-literate communication strategies.
• Future research should focus on organizational approaches and enhanced communication training for hospitalists.