1. Health Literacy in Medical Education: Promoting Empowerment as a Patient-Centred Care Approach
Philip Girvan
Background/Purpose:
A patient-centered approach positions the patient at the centre of health practices, policies, curricula,
and pedagogies. In order to practice in a patient-centred manner, health professionals must take into
account the multiple social complexities of the patient, not the least of which is health literacy. It is
therefore important to consider how and where issues of health literacy are being addressed in
undergraduate medical education.
Methodology:
This proposed presentation will report on a systematic literature review, critical analysis and synthesis of
the following bodies of literature: patient-centered care; health literacy; medical education. The review
focused on articles published in English in peer-reviewed health professional education journals
between 01 January 2000 and 31 December 2010.
Results:
Health literacy encompasses knowledge, understanding, and access to and control of resources that
promote and maintain satisfactory health and wellbeing. It is the outcome of such diverse abilities as
reading, writing, numeracy, the ability to access information, and critical thinking. A surprisingly small
proportion of the literature in the area of patient-centred care focuses on health literacy as a
determinant of health and well being. An even smaller proportion of the literature considered health
literacy as an issue of concern to be addressed in the education of future physicians.
Conclusions/Discussion:
The dearth of related literature indicates that there is much work to be done in considering how issues
of health literacy might be addressed in patient-centred medical education. An emphasis on health
literacy in medical education will have implications on power relations in educational settings as well as
in, and beyond, the clinical encounter.