Week 1 Pathways To Safer Opioid Use - Edited

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Week 1 Discussion 1
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Week 1 Discussion 1
Health promotion entails the determination of changes that patients plan to make and an
assessment of their life contexts that influence the change processes, including the challenges
and strengths. Aside from this core element of health promotion, it involves how the nurse's
assistance or empowerment helps them achieve the lifestyle changes that they need. In this
regard, consideration for the environmental barriers to lifestyle modifications is vital to
empowering patients and achieving the goals of health promotion activities. Therefore, this
week’s discussion post will reflect on the contents of the course material, ways of empowering
patients to make lifestyle changes, strategies for improving health literacy, and challenges with
improving health literacy.
I empowered a patient to cease cigarette smoking to improve his health outcomes from the
treatment during my previous clinical rotation despite living with a partner who is a smoker. As a
chronic bronchitis patient, this individual needed smoking cessation to prevent his condition
from worsening and leading to other serious complications. In this regard, I used the information
from the interview sessions to discover that past efforts to stop smoking failed because the
patient did not realize that nicotine patches are less expensive than cigarettes and eliminate the
pressures of smoking when his partner does so. As a result of the knowledge gap, it is important
to structure the educational session on the benefits of lifestyle changes, including the long-term
financial and health benefits (Wakefield et al., 2018). This information empowered the patient to
convert the money for buying cigarettes to purchasing nicotine patches that he uses whenever he
is pressured to smoke by his partner or other residents during neighborhood events. Hence, the
empowerment of this patient to make this important lifestyle modification was successful
because it addressed the knowledge gaps that contributed to previous failures.

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Additionally, I use the strategies used in the Pathways to Safe Opioid Use simulation exercise
during patient health literacy sessions. Specifically, I focus on the use of plain, non-medical
language to describe their medical condition or illnesses and speak clearly as part of my
communication strategies during this session. According to Murugesu et al. (2022),
communication methods are highly effective in preventing miscommunication and
misunderstanding that hinders the use of self-care practices to achieve the treatment goals. Aside
from these two strategies, the use of graphics, content prioritization, eye contact, and patient
participation are other effective strategies for delivering patient health literacy sessions to
achieve health promotion goals. Teach back is the final strategy that is used to confirm patients’
understanding, prevent miscommunication, and identify other aspects of patient's life that are
critical to achieving health literacy goals. Therefore, the use of the teach-back strategy as a
coaching method for strengthening the patient's problem-solving and decision-making skills
makes it the most effective approach for delivering patient health literacy.
Despite the effectiveness of these strategies, it is challenging to Improve the health literacy of
elderly patients due to their use of several medications and potential cognitive and functional
decline. Also, the various barriers that elderly patients face with the transition of care and care
coordination in the health care system are another reason why it is challenging to improve their
health literacy. Due to the importance of health literacy in preventing adverse drug events in
elderly patients, some of the measures to manage these challenges is to focus the contents of the
health literacy session on need-to-know and need-to-do information such as the schedule for
taking medicine and use of color codes on the medication labels to improve their understanding
of the safety issues surrounding them (Wittenberg, Ferrell, Kanter, & Buller, 2018). In essence,
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the challenges of delivering health literacy to elderly patients can be resolved through color-
coded medication schedules.
References
Murugesu, L., Heijmans, M., Rademakers, J., & Fransen, M. P. (2022). Challenges and solutions
in communication with patients with low health literacy: Perspectives of healthcare
providers. PLOS ONE, 17(5), e0267782. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0267782
Wakefield, D., Bayly, J., Selman, L. E., Firth, A. M., Higginson, I. J., & Murtagh, F. E. (2018).
Patient empowerment, what does it mean for adults in the advanced stages of a life-
limiting illness: A systematic review using critical interpretive synthesis. Palliative
Medicine, 32(8), 1288-1304. https://doi.org/10.1177/0269216318783919
Wittenberg, E., Ferrell, B., Kanter, E., & Buller, H. (2018). Health literacy: Exploring nursing
challenges to providing support and understanding. Clinical Journal of Oncology
Nursing, 22(1), 53-61. DOI: 10.1188/18.CJON.53-61

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regard, consideration for the environmental barriers to lifestyle modifications is vital to

improving health literacy.

because it addressed the knowledge gaps that contributed to previous failures.

communication strategies during this session. According to Murugesu et al. (2022),

communication methods are highly effective in preventing miscommunication and

coded medication schedules.

in communication with patients with low health literacy: Perspectives of healthcare

providers. PLOS ONE, 17(5), e0267782. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0267782

limiting illness: A systematic review using critical interpretive synthesis. Palliative

Medicine, 32(8), 1288-1304. https://doi.org/10.1177/0269216318783919

challenges to providing support and understanding. Clinical Journal of Oncology

Nursing, 22(1), 53-61. DOI: 10.1188/18.CJON.53-61

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