Palliative Care: Literacy and Perceptions of Care—An Investigation of the Relationship Between Health Literacy Levels and Nursing Care Perception of Patients Hospitalized in Palliative Care

OpenAlex · English

Background Patients who have low health literacy levels and those who have chronic illnesses tend to have challenges in understanding their illnesses and the entire treatment process. Purpose This research was aimed at investigating the connection between health literacy rates of palliative care and how nursing care is perceived by patients in palliative care units. Methodology A cross‐sectional correlational and descriptive research design was used in this study. It was carried out on the palliative services in two state hospitals in the southeastern part of the Anatolia region in Turkey. No sampling strategy was employed, and it was aimed to cover all patients in the inpatient setting, above the age of 18. The sample population used in the research was the patients and caregivers who had volunteered to take part in the research study during the months of February to October 2024. The data were gathered on the Descriptive Information Form, Health Literacy Scale, and the Nursing Care Perception Scale. The data were obtained through the face‐to‐face interviews. Results The reliability analysis of the scales showed that the reliability levels were very high with alpha values of 0.811–0.980. The average of health literacy was obtained as 47.56 + ‐9.14, whereas the average score of the nursing care perception scale was 69.74 + ‐8.89. One‐way ANOVA revealed statistically significant differences in the scores of the functional, interactive, and critical health literacy subdimension scores, based on the level of education of the study participants ( p < 0.05). Also, the nursing care perception scores were statistically different depending on the previous hospitalization situation of the participants. Care perception of persons who had not been formerly hospitalized was identified to be low as compared to those who had formerly been hospitalized. Conclusion Health literacy scores and nursing care perception scores were found to have a statistically significant positive correlation.