Clinical excellence for nurse practitioners : the international journal of NPACE
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Clin Excell Nurse Pract · Jan 2000
Literacy for health information of adult patients and caregivers in a rural emergency department.
The nurse practitioner is responsible for providing the patient and family with understandable written information before discharge from the emergency department (ED) following an acute event. Patients are more likely to adhere to their treatment regimen and follow-up if they have a clear understanding of their instructions. Patients cannot correctly interpret information they cannot read. ⋯ The REALM scores placed the reading level of the sample at between seventh and eighth grade. The preprinted discharge instruction forms used by the three rural hospitals had a Flesch-Kincaid grade level of 9.0, a reading level higher than 62% of the sample. By ensuring discharge instructions are developed at a reading level of sixth grade or below, nurse practitioners can provide teaching materials that encompass the reading levels of the majority of the rural ED population.