There is a direct link between literacy skill level and health. Low literacy skills affect a person's ability to effectively use health services, take medications, and understand other information provided to them regarding their health (Health Canada, 2001). The purpose of this study was to uncover the meaning of patient education experiences for adults living with limited literacy and chronic illnesses. An inductive, interpretive, hermeneutic phenomenological method was used (van Marten, 1997a). A purposeful sample of 14 adults who were attending literacy programs and had chronic illnesses were interviewed. From these interviews, five themes were ascertained: different roles and relationships, living between worlds, language and health care interactions, mismatched expectations, and powerlessness. Adult learning theories helped illuminate how adults with limited literacy and chronic illnesses make meaning of patient education experiences. For the purposes of this study the following adult learning theories were used: Transformational learning theory (Mezirow, 1995), situated cognition theory (Kirshner & Whitson, 1997), and critical theory (Welton, 1995a).
This phenomenological study shone a light on the patient education experiences for adults living with limited literacy and chronic illnesses and exposed the meaning of these experiences as one of a shifting in meaning perspective for the participants. This shifting in meaning perspective was a result of their community of practices within their literacy classrooms which allowed them to enhance their literacy abilities. This, in turn, allowed them to confront the barriers within the health care systems that blocked their full engagement with the health care system. Although some of the barriers continued to exist for the participants, they were better able to able to identify and confront them.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:uottawa.ca/oai:ruor.uottawa.ca:10393/29440 |
| Date | January 2007 |
| Creators | King, Judy |
| Publisher | University of Ottawa (Canada) |
| Source Sets | Université d’Ottawa |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | 279 p. |
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