In the context of population aging, enhancing the health of older patients has become an urgent issue for public health. Health education and health literacy need to be further understood from the healthcare providers’ standpoint to increase older patients’ effective application of such information into their daily lives. We aimed to further understand nurses’ perspectives on the education of older patients and their health literacy, as nurses are one of the frontline providers interacting with older patients. In total, 16 nurses and nurse practitioners who had 5 or more years of clinical experience participated. Data were collected via face-to-face interviews and emails. Data analysis followed the thematic analysis suggested by Braun and Clarke. Five themes emerged from the analysis, as follows: attitudes that are hard to change; physical and cognitive functional barriers to understanding teaching materials; family caregivers—surrogate vs. gatekeeper; major contexts that moderate the elderly’s health literacy; and strategies to enhance teaching effectiveness and health literacy. These findings illustrate the conditions pertinent to communication with older adults from the patients’, providers’ and healthcare delivery viewpoints. Systemic assistance and interventions specialized for older patients and their healthcare providers need to be developed and tested to improve clinical practice and patient health literacy.

최수정, et al. J Korean Acad Nurs. 2024 Aug;54:e19. https://doi.org/10.4040/jkan.24075

This study compared outcomes, including pain, fatigue, anxiety, satisfaction, health-related quality of life (HRQOL), ease of access, and unexpected emergency room (ER) visits, for patients with cancer in South Korea who were cared for by an oncology clinical nurse specialist (CNS) with patients with cancer who were not. Self-report questionnaires and semistructured interviews were used to appraise the performance of oncology CNSs, and medical characteristics were obtained through chart review. CNS interventions were found to diminish some intensity scores of pain and fatigue, and to increase HRQOL, satisfaction with trustworthiness, and ease of access. No significant effects were observed on anxiety or unexpected ER visits. The current study provides evidence that oncology CNSs are effective in South Korea, which will be the basis of validating the implementation and expansion of policy for oncology nursing.

Hwang JH, et al. Korean J Adult Nurs. 2021 Dec;33(6):565-575. https://doi.org/10.7475/kjan.2021.33.6.565

Kim JH, et al. J Korean Acad Nurs Adm. 2019 Jan;25(1):14-24. https://doi.org/10.11111/jkana.2019.25.1.14

Hong KJ, et al. J Korean Med Sci. 2017 Aug;32(8):1367-1373. https://doi.org/10.3346/jkms.2017.32.8.1367