HeLPER (Health Literacy Program to Enhance Responsiveness): a study protocol about co-designing a health literacy initiative for university students

Background Health and social care professionals must develop health literacy responsiveness to best identify and address health literacy challenges in individuals. Education in health literacy responsiveness has been recommended for inclusion in professional degree programs at university.Aim The HeLPER (Health Literacy Program to Enhance Responsiveness) initiative aims to enhance health literacy responsiveness in university students, ensuring they are well-prepared to meet the health literacy needs of the community.Methods The HeLPER initiative will be an education initiative developed by two Western Australian universities and co-designed with local community members, health and social care professions students, working health and social care professionals and academic staff. The co-design process will be directed using the Ophelia (Optimising Health Literacy and Access) process in four phases. Phase 1 will engage community representatives to identify health literacy strengths, needs and action ideas. Phase 2 will involve community representatives co-designing actionable statements from the action ideas, which will be reviewed by health literacy experts. Students, professionals and academic staff will discuss strategies to co-design lesson plans from the actionable statements. In phase 3, all HeLPER education material and assessment components will be developed by the research team, and pilot tested with a small cohort of students. Community representatives, students, professionals and academic staff will review the results of the pilot test and recommend modifications. Phase 4 will involve embedding HeLPER into existing health and social care curricula across two universities with regular quality improvement cycles to ensure material remains contemporary, relevant and meaningful.Discussion This will result in the first co-designed health literacy responsiveness education for university-level health and social care professions students. Short-, medium- and long-term outcomes will benefit emerging health and social care professionals, individuals, carers and the community to provide targeted health literacy support, leading to overall improved health outcomes.