Jenna Gordils gordilsj@students.felician.edu Vital Signs Paper Barriers One of the barriers I encountered in completing this assignment was some physical deficits due to MI’s age. MI is elderly and has some vision and hearing problems. To overcome these issues, I rewrote the flash cards using larger flash cards, as well as larger writing so that she could see better. To accommodate for the person’s hearing deficit, I sat closer and repeated the terms as necessary, sometimes spelling them out. Another barrier I encountered was that MI wanted to know the results after each card. I explained that I would relay the results at the end of the activity. The assessment took a little longer than expected due to having to rewrite the flashcards and sometimes repeating terms, but overall, MI was able to complete the assessment without any significant issues. Level of Health Literacy Prior to completing this assignment, I thought MI had some knowledge of terms due to going to the doctors fairly frequently, but not a complete understanding of healthcare terminology. I expected that MI would get most of the terms correct, but I did not think she would get them all. However, I was surprised that there was only one that MI did not get correct. Being that MI has never worked in healthcare before, I thought there would be a few terms that might be foreign to her. This is what I would expect with anyone who did not work in healthcare, have a family member in healthcare, or were exposed to it in some way, shape, of form. I was pleasantly surprised by the results. Communication I did not want to confuse MI or give her more details than necessary, so instead of telling her the score, I simply told her which one she got wrong and what the correct answer was. MI only got one of them wrong, so she was very pleased with her results. She was receptive to her results and even stated “Wow, I know more terminology than I thought.” She was happy to participate in the activity. After the assessment, she bragged to her friends and family that she “passed her test with flying colors.” I also think participating in the activity made her feel good about herself and able to help in a way she didn’t expect. Reflection By completing this assignment, I learned that sometimes you may need to adjust your method of performing the assessment according to the person’s capabilities. For example, I was not able to complete the assessment as is. I had to think outside of the box and find another way to present the flashcards to MI due to her hearing and vision deficits. Another thing I learned was that sometimes you may be surprised by how “health literate” a person is. Although they may not work in healthcare or be exposed to it, simply by going to the doctor frequently or hearing terms on tv or in the media can be enough to expose a person to these terms. There may be instances where you may have to adjust the assessment even more than I did depending on the person. For example, if person is illiterate, you may have to read the terms to them rather than having them read it themselves. Another scenario that may occur is if a person is unwilling to participate. Unfortunately, you would not be able to complete the assessment if that is the case. References SAHL-E Test Form and User Guide. (n.d.). AHRQ. Retrieved April 3, 2022, from https://www.ahrq.gov/sites/default/files/wysiwyg/professionals/quality-patientsafety/quality-resources/tools/literacy/sahl-e-form-user-guide.pdf Weiss, B. D. (2005, November 1). Quick Assessment of Literacy in Primary Care: The Newest Vital Sign. Annals of Family Medicine. https://www.annfammed.org/content/3/6/514.long
