Course introduction

Welcome to the course Working with Patients with Limited Health Literacy!

The next three weeks of this course are devoted to the exploration of health literacy. You will learn what health literacy is, what the consequences of limited health literacy are for a patient’s health, and explore strategies and techniques to mitigate health literacy problems in healthcare.

Each week of the course has a specific focus:

• Week 1: The concepts and consequences of limited health literacy
• Week 2: Approaches to mitigate health literacy problems from a healthcare system and patient perspective
• Week 3: Strategies and techniques to mitigate health literacy problems from a healthcare professional’s perspective

Each week you will learn by engaging in different activities, such as watching videos, undertaking quizzes, reading articles, doing exercises and discussing health literacy related topics with other learners.

What will you learn?

At the end of the course you should be able to:

• Describe what health literacy is
• Identify the health consequences of limited health literacy
• Identify ways in which the Healthcare Professional can contribute to mitigating the effects of limited health literacy
• Demonstrate how to address peoples’ unmet health literacy needs

Share with others

We are looking forward to your contributions in the comment sections. Also, consider joining us on social media to build the debate. For those of you who use Twitter, the hashtag #FLhealthliteracy will help you to share ideas and experiences of the course.

Ready to begin?

To get started, click on the pink ‘Mark as complete’ button, below (this will help you keep track of your progress through the course) and then click ‘Next’ (below right) to move on to Step 1.2.