Development and evaluation of innovate to communicate: a health literacy workforce training workshop

Background Healthcare professionals have been slow to adopt health literacy practices. With the focus on organizational health literacy increasing, there is a need for accompanying workforce training. Aims: The Innovate to Communicate workshop aimed to increase participants’ knowledge and skills to (1) communicate using evidence-based health literacy practices e.g., plain language, chunking information, teach back, medicine review, and (2) integrate health literacy into structures, processes, and quality measures.Methods Health Literacy Collaborative of the Dallas Fort Worth Hospital Council, developed the ITC modules and workshop informed by the 10 Attributes of a Health Literate Organization and adult learning principles. We developed an interactive, engaging workshop that includes a didactic slide deck, exemplar videos, role-play scenarios, a Kahoot® game, and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality [AHRQ] Communication Observation Form.Results The ITC workshop was delivered at 7 virtual or in-person conferences with 250 participants. Of the total participants, 104 completed the workshop evaluation. Most reported that they see themselves using health literacy strategies in direct patient care (90%) with many participants feeling mostly or completely confident about using health literacy strategies such as plain language, chunking information, and teach back (81%) and doing one health literacy action in the next week (89%). The majority (92%) reported that the ITC workshop introduced them to at least one new health literacy resource that they had not used before. Most (93%) reported that they see themselves using the ITC workshop to train others and almost all (97%) reported that they were likely to recommend the ITC workshop to their colleagues. While 89% reported that the 1½ h workshop was the right amount of time, 11% reported that it was too short.Discussion The ITC was an interactive, engaging workshop that is available at no cost to others who are training healthcare professionals in health literacy.