It should be stressed that chronic health conditions are critical for the contemporary health care setting, patients’ statuses, and the population well-being in general. It is of particular importance in terms of the elderly people due to the fact that many of them are health illiterate, which often times results in the decreased effects of nursing interventions and the insufficiency of plan of care aimed at supporting their positive health status. In the USA, the percentage of illiterate senior patients is immense; therefore, immediate interventions are essential (Hessle, 2014). The setting is complicated by the need to furnish adequate patient-oriented education by the nursing staff. At this point, healthcare specialists should be knowledgeable of effective communication strategies to engage patients in open and productive discussions in which the latter will receive detailed information regarding health promotion, and the professionals will be sure that the patient was able to comprehend all the crucial points (Hessle, 2014). Thus, insufficient health promotion among older adults and ineffective teaching strategies have resulted in poor health statuses and low literacy levels of senior patients.
Clinical Question
Importantly, the clinical question addressed in the proposed study is based on PICOT format. In the course of research, it will be necessary to determine whether patient education in elderly patients with chronic diseases will increase their knowledge and improve their health statuses compared to cases when medical treatments solely are provided. The timeframe for defining the results of two different patient approaches is six months.
Intervention
The first part of the intervention is aimed at enhancing patient education. To be more precise, patients suffering from chronic conditions will be educated on the importance of reducing the manifestations of their illnesses, would receive general information on their conditions, and will be informed on the criticality of complying with the provided recommendations (DiCenso, Guyatt, & Ciliska, 2014). Importantly, nursing personnel should be aware of age-related education and effective communication approaches to teaching senior patients. Each approach should be adapted to the particular needs and peculiarities of each individual. It is suggested that this intervention will enhance patient literacy and will lead to positive changes in their health status.
Another part of the intervention is targeted at the nursing staff. Healthcare workers should engage patients in productive discussions, which imply the knowledge of effective communication strategies from the side of specialists and the understanding of peculiarities of each age group (DiCenso et al., 2014). The employees will be educated in teaching strategies and the ways of promoting health literacy among senior patients. The providers will supply patients with the relevant educational materials and instruct them verbally in face-to-face discussions on the adoption of healthier practices and behaviors.
Study Design
A randomized controlled clinical trial will be conducted. The experiment will display whether the proposed intervention leads to positive results in patients experiencing it compared to the sample that does not receive the proposed measure. This type of clinical trial will enable determining the cause and effect of the proposed approach to patient care (DiCenso et al., 2014). Importantly, prior to conducting the actual experiment, the theoretical frameworks will be drawn from the literature research. They will be further applied to the real-life patient education initiatives. After the intervention is introduced, patient feedback will be gathered and analyzed. This way, it will be possible to test the efficiency of the intervention and to bring actual positive change in senior patients’ literacy levels.
References
DiCenso, A., Guyatt, G., & Ciliska, D. (2014). Evidence-based nursing: A guide to clinical practice. New York, NY: Elsevier Health Sciences.
Hessle, S. (2014). Human rights and social equality: Challenges for social work. Farnham, UK: Ashgate Publishing Limited.