Ways In Which to Engage and Empower the Community and Increase Health Literacy on Diabetes

Health literacy is the degree to which people access, process, gain an understanding, and share information about health issues essential to making informed decisions. It is a broad term requiring specific skills to interpret and communicate health-related information to meet various unique demands depending on the individual and their setting (American Association of Diabetes Educators, 2019). Health literacy requires demands and skills ranging from oral communication and numeracy and attention to cultural relevance.

Health literacy Impact on Diabetes

There are many ways in which health influences the outcomes of diabetes. For example, it impacts the acquisition of new knowledge about the disease, improving self-efficacy, and adherence to self-care behaviors (Dang et al., 2020).  There are also patient characteristics assisted with literacy skills, including reading fluency, the complexity of the printed messages, prior knowledge, individual capacity, and norms.

Engaging and Empowering the Community

A nurse handling a community with diabetes needs to be highly knowledgeable about the disease and possess high overall health literacy. One of the ways to engage the community is by educating the patients to understand basic health information about the disease and explaining various services required to make appropriate health decisions. For example, educate them on the history of the disease and how it is acquired and managed. Also, they can be taught about daily activities to improve their health. For example, there are numeracy skills that patients should know, including carrying out self-care tasks like blood glucose monitoring, carbohydrate counting, and insulin titration (Dang et al., 2020). With the involvement of technology, many aspects of diabetes are manageable with combined efforts from the patient and the provider.

To empower this population, they need health literacy regarding lifestyle management, self-testing procedures, self-management, and good medication usage and adherence. Many studies show that patient with low literacy rates experiences poor health outcomes (American Association of Diabetes Educators, 2019).  Also, such diabetic patients are likely to remain in a poor state, have lower self-confidence, and have problems following medication instructions.

Therefore, a nurse needs to understand that every time they interact with people with diabetes, they have an opportunity to empower them and improve their health. For example, they can also provide community outreach programs instead of waiting for the patients to reach clinics for help (Dang et al., 2020).  They can also utilize an app to share information about diabetes prevention and management. This technology focuses on food tracking, blood glucose tracking, physical activities, and weight loss.

Communication and Cultural Issues to Consider

When communicating with patients, it is important to consider language differences and culture because they offer essential health information and messages. For example, different cultures perceive health and illness differently. For example, some individuals may experience language and cultural barriers preventing seeking care and disease management. Also, some cultures have stereotypes that influence health outcomes (American Association of Diabetes Educators, 2019).  Besides, when communicating with patients from different backgrounds, a nurse should communicate effectively to avoid misunderstandings and conflicts which may limit care.

Also, it is essential to consider that patients have different educational backgrounds and use appropriate language when explaining the disease symptoms, and avoid using racial and ethnic labels and language that is person-centered and stigmatized. (Dang et al., 2020).  Cultural concepts also include religious beliefs, which are potent filters for how information is perceived and processed. Therefore, cultural diversity is critical in health literacy. It involves more than understanding people’s language, norms, beliefs, and values. A nurse must gain relevant insights and develop cultural humility to create positive and respectful relationships with this population.

Health Literacy Challenges of People with Diabetes

If diabetes is managed well, it does not become fatal. However, if it is not treated, it can cause organ complications causing acute and chronic morbidity, which cause amputations, blindness, renal disease, or even death. Thus, for a patient to prevent these complications, they need to know more about this disease, self-care abilities, and self-management. However, the health literacy level of the patients influences their levels of knowledge and control of diabetes (Mogessie et al., 2022). Some challenges associated with lo