NET 2018 Conference: Health literacy among student nurses: An international perspective

Research paper

Nurses play a significant role in direct patient education and care and therefore can have a major influence on a patient’s health literacy. This study determined the health literacy profiles of undergraduate student nurses and how these develop over the course of their three year programme. This cross-sectional study investigated 845 undergraduate student nurses from seven universities in four countries using the 44-item Health Literacy Questionnaire. The results provide insight into how student nurses’ individual health literacy develops during their undergraduate training as well as challenging assumptions of what students’ health literacy may look like upon graduation.