Patient empowerment through activation

By enabling patients to ask questions they will be empowered to take control over their own situation. Questions instigated by patients are seeking information that is important and relevant to them, facilitating the provision of more tailored specific information from the healthcare professional. The systematic review found that patients with limited health literacy expressed the relevance of knowledge about their disease, symptoms, and results to feel more in control and confident about managing their condition. By having more knowledge of their own disease, patients feel like they are regaining power and autonomy. The perceived need for patients to acquire more knowledge about their condition might influence the extent to which patients actively seek knowledge themselves.

Later this week you will learn how to recognise a patient’s lack of understanding and what you can do to make sure that your patient does understand.

References:

Jager, M., de Zeeuw, J., Tullius, J., Papa, R., Giammarchi, C., Whittal, A., & de Winter, A. F. (2019). Patient Perspectives to Inform a Health Literacy Educational Program: A Systematic Review and Thematic Synthesis of Qualitative Studies. International journal of environmental research and public health, 16(21), 4300.