健康素養與健康照護

Health Literacy in Health Care

健康素養是指「個人用以獲取、詮釋、了解基本的健康訊息、產品或服務以及能使用這些訊息或服務以增進健康的能力」。其中特別強調聽、說、讀、寫、計算等能力在健康訊息傳播上的重要。受限的健康素養常使得病人對健康訊息理解力不足而造成許多不良的健康結果。醫療環境中與病人溝通的語言、衛教單張內容常不符合病人健康素養程度，因此造成溝通的障礙。病人的健康指導，是護理人員引以為傲的工作職責，加強指導的有效性是護理的責任。本文介紹健康素養相關的議題以及護理實務的應用，期望藉此能提供醫療照護人員健康素養相關的知識，作為照護實務或研究之參考。

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.<||> Skills such as reading, writing, basic mathematical calculations and speech are emphasized in patient-provider communication because it is felt that inadequate health literacy may lead to misinformation and so negatively affect the treatment and safety of the patient. However, the medical language and educational materials used in a medical setting are not suitable for illiterate or functionally illiterate patients and this creates difficulties in patient-provider communication. Promoting the effectiveness of patient teaching is the responsibility of nurses who pride themselves on their patient education endeavors. This article provides information about health literacy issues in a health care setting and the nursing practices available. It is hoped that this paper can provide health care practitioners with additional knowledge about health literacy and references in health care practice or research.