The Center for Disease Control (CDC, 2024) defines personal health literacy as “the degree to which individuals have the ability to find, understand, and use information and services to inform health-related decisions and actions for themselves and others.” Improving health literacy is an ideal, shared value, and ethical responsibility of all team members in collaborative, patient-centered care in addition to improving patients’ trust and health equity (CDC, 2024). Thus, it is an ideal topic to bring two or more professions together for interprofessional education (IPE). This presentation meets the theme of Person, Family, and Community-Engaged Practice and Education by emphasizing health literacy as a critical component in educating future health professionals to improve the sensitivity of providers, especially in our urban Philadelphia area.
This talk will present findings from qualitative analysis of an IPE experience focused on health literacy delivered across three academic years and two graduate-level health professional programs: Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine (DO) and Doctor of Psychology (PsyD) in Clinical Psychology. Examining medical students’ self-reflections offers understanding of the impact of interprofessional training on future healthcare providers’ knowledge, skills, and attitudes. The session included a one-hour presentation from a team of clinical psychologists and a patient representative with use of publicly available video modules offering additional patient perspectives. The didactic emphasized the importance of understanding patients’ beliefs, values, and communication needs in healthcare and the providers’ responsibility in making health information useful. One hour of small group interprofessional case-based role-plays focusing on medical intervention and psychological education helped students practice inquiring about literacy, health literacy, and delivering information in a useful manner. The aims of the module were to increase interprofessional learning, knowledge, and skills, and foster attitudes of inclusivity and awareness. Data includes 108 self-reflections from second (101) and fourth (7) year DO students about this experience. The data was coded, organized and analyzed using ATLAS.ti and 10% was also coded by the research team for validity. The multidisciplinary research team consists of faculty, a postdoctoral fellow, graduate healthcare students, and a patient representative. The patient representative was a key component of the intervention delivery and the evaluating research team. Findings inform curriculum development and teaching strategies aimed at fostering effective interprofessional collaboration, health literacy, and improving patient care.
Lightning Talk
Wednesday, September 17, 2025, 1:15 pm - 2:15 pm CDT
Keywords:
health literacygraduate medical trainingself-reflection and self-awareness