Provider Trainings to Improve Health Literacy

This approach focuses on training healthcare professionals to increase their skills, with the overall goal of improving organizational health literacy. Provider trainings build organizational health literacy by supporting healthcare professionals in learning clear communication strategies and incorporating these techniques into patient care. The train-the-trainer approach is one promising strategy that rural communities are using.

Train-the-Trainer Approach

Train-the-trainer is an approach to training leaders and subject matter experts in specific concepts and skills, so they can then effectively train others in the organization or community to use those concepts and skills.

Programs that use a train-the-trainer approach to increase organizational health literacy can customize trainings so that they support health literacy awareness among staff. Trainings can also be developed to help create organizational goals and initiatives around health literacy. Having organizational goals tied to health literacy is a key attribute of a health literate organization. Incorporating universal precautions techniques, such as increasing understanding for all patients regardless of their health literacy level, into train-the-trainer approaches may enhance both personal and organizational health literacy.

Workforce Training

This training approach seeks to build the skills of healthcare providers so that an organization or healthcare setting acknowledges people's values, beliefs, and behaviors and adapts healthcare services and communication to meet linguistic needs. Using approaches adapted to individual needs and characteristics can improve how an individual understands health information, cares for individual and family health, and makes decisions.

When interacting with rural populations, it is important to consider the role of customs. Learning the patients' needs and being respectful of their background can aid in decision-making and overall treatment plans. This may include gathering an understanding of a patient's health beliefs, health customs, religious beliefs, and dietary customs.

Examples of Programs Using Provider Trainings to Improve Organizational Health Literacy

• Western New York healthcare organizations are participating in the Health Literacy Call to Action Health Literacy Trainer program funded by the Health Foundation for Western and Central New York. Virtual training sessions are designed to offer resources and materials that can be customized to meet an organization's needs.
• Messengers for Health strives to improve the health and well-being of rural residents living on the Crow Indian Reservation and other areas in Montana. By incorporating the cultural strengths of the community and heritage, they work to improve the health literacy of tribal community members living within this region.
• REACH Healthcare Foundation works in rural communities by improving health coverage and access to care. One REACH-funded project involved developing a framework to increase the focus on understanding different cultural considerations in Kansas. Results highlight the importance of rural culture as it relates to seeking, accessing, and providing effective healthcare. Findings suggest that characteristics of rural culture should be considered when implementing programs to improve healthcare access.
• The North Dakota Rural Health Association, the University of North Dakota (UND) Center for Rural Health, and the UND Department of Family and Community Medicine developed a health literacy project for health profession students and resident physicians called the Targeted Rural Health Education (TRHE) Project. Through TRHE, health professionals learn how to write a plain-language article with public health data that is understandable for rural communities and can be published in a rural newspaper. The program is also featured in Rural Health Models & Innovations.

Program Clearinghouse Examples

• Doña Ana County Health and Human Services is developing a health literacy curriculum for community health workers, which includes a module that uses a train-the-trainer approach.

Implementation Considerations

Provider trainings are focused on improving health literacy at the organizational level, improving communication between providers and their patients, and utilizing strategies to improve overall health outcomes for all patients. Trainings can also help build relationships within the community between healthcare professionals and patients.

There is an increasing number of resources that organizations can use to train their workforce on linguistically appropriate principles, including National Standards for Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services (CLAS).

Providing language-concordant services and translation services can help engage community members in their care. For example, employing translators from the community and ensuring that translation services are available for all patient visits are also essential. Organizations may consider partnering with other organizations to share translation services in areas where these resources are harder to find.

Resources to Learn More

Address Language Differences
Document
An excerpt from the Health Literacy Universal Precautions Toolkit providing activities that address language and sensory differences among patients in healthcare settings who need language assistance services such as translators and written material in preferred languages.
Organization(s): Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ)
Date: 9/2020

Culture and Communication
Website
Offers trainings from a variety of sources for healthcare providers, public health professionals, and health profession students on the provision of culturally and linguistically appropriate services for diverse populations to improve health equity.
Organization(s): Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)