Date of Conferral

2018

Degree

Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP)

School

Nursing

Advisor

Sue Bell

Abstract

The United States dedicates greater than 17% of its gross national product to healthcare. This percentage is expected to go up to 20% by 2018. Despite the high cost of care, the health care system remains inefficient and ineffective. Barriers include reduced access to care related to low health literacy. Complicating low health literacy is the high readability score of patient education materials. The high readability score is in part due to tools that are not standardized and measure different aspects of education materials creating varying readability scores. The purpose of this quality improvement project was to adopt a tool, the Clear Communication Index, which is evidence-based and standardized using the federal Plain Language Guidelines, to assess the reading score of educational materials in a 62-bed acute long-term care facility. The plan, do, study, and act model was used as a translational framework to guide this project, and the theory of goal attainment served as the theoretical support for the project. The Clear Communication Index worksheet was used to assess the readability of documents given to patients at discharge. Any score below 90% was considered difficult to understand and required revision. One month after implementation, patient satisfaction scores on 2 metrics showed improvement. The score for 'When I left the hospital, I clearly understood the purpose for taking each of my medications?' increased from 58.2% to 90.7%. The 2nd patient satisfaction survey metric, 'During this hospital stay, did you get information in writing about what symptoms or health problems to look out for after you left the hospital?,' increased from 73.1% to 83.3%. The results may promote social change by providing equal care access to all through readable educational materials.

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