Medical Student Health Literacy Perspectives and Experiences

to obtain, process, and understand basic health information and services needed to make appropriate health decisions” [2]. While written patient information readability has been used in health student teaching, there is minimal literature focusing on health literacy understanding and experiences among medical students [3]. A pilot project was undertaken at Harvard Medical School to evaluate health literacy and cross-cultural care integrated into didactic and experiential methods [4]. Medical students indicated by survey that this elective course was beneficial in teaching the students to use basic words, body language, handouts, and pictures. A report regarding geriatric health literacy workshops for medical students found an increased awareness of approaches to address communication with older adults with low health literacy [5].