Developing health information literacy in disengaged at-risk populations

Abstract

Purpose: to advance our understanding of the challenges of health information literacy education in disengaged at-risk populations; and from the perspective of professionals out with information professions occupying everyday support roles. Design/methodology: qualitative in-depth case study. Our participants were a team of UK Family Nurses providing outreach support to young expectant mothers from areas of multiple deprivations, and the mothers themselves. Our data collection methods were observation, survey, interviews, and focus groups. Findings: information needs of mothers are multiple, and not always recognised as information problems, or revealed. Several felt overwhelmed, and actively avoided health information. There is low awareness and/or use of state sources of online health information. Family nurses provide an important information intermediary role, but are unfamiliar with information literacy (IL) concepts and models; consequently, there is limited evidence of client transitions to independent information seeking, or underpinning pedagogical practices to achieve such goals. Research limitations/implications: further research is required into appropriate pedagogical approaches to IL education adaptable to semi-structured everyday situations. Recognition of information need requires particular attention, including methods of elicitation and specification in the problematic context. Practical implications: in an era of digital transitions and public service reforms, we raise important questions regarding the true reach of Public Health policy. Originality/value: holistically examining nurse-client information behaviours; extends discussion of low IL in nurses beyond issues of evidence based practice, to issues of developing healthcare self-efficacy in at-risk clients.

The information behaviours of disadvantaged young first-time mothers

“…Further, those mothers who use online sources appear to largely use Google to make general searches, with none indicating use of authoritative institutional sources such as those provided by the UK NHS. Related work has reported similar issues (Buchanan and Nicol, 2019). Such low use of institutional sources has implications for UK healthcare policy (see: Practical Implications).…”

Information literacy instruction in public libraries

“…While this may be intuitive to a young person confronted with writing a research paper, a group that wants to start a community garden may not identify that information need lies at the root of the project they are confronting.' The information needs of refugees have also been linked with everyday IL in a number of studies (Lloyd & Wilkinson, 2019;Martzoukou & Burnett, 2018) and health information seeking is another subject of multiple studies through an IL lens, outside the context of education (Buchanan & Nicol, 2019;Furnival & Silva Jerez, 2014). Consistent with these examples, Martzoukou and Sayyad Abdi's review of ELIL found four themes or areas where research has been carried out in ELIL: leisure and community activities; citizenship and fulfilment of social roles; public health; and critical life situations.…”

Volunteers' strategies for supporting asylum seekers with information challenges

“…, 2020). According to Buchanan and Nicol (2019, p. 174), information intermediaries “facilitate information needs recognition and considered [sic] purposeful action within problematic situations, are a key source of information in themselves, and a key integrative connection to other external sources not otherwise accessed; and tailor and personalise information for relevance, and communicate via incremental and recursive cycles that take into account learning needs”.…”

“…Recent literature has begun to consider more diverse groups as intermediaries; they are not information professionals only . Intermediaries include support workers , social workers (Sabelli, 2012), nurses (Buchanan and Nicol, 2019), care workers, volunteers and family members (Cruickshank et al, 2020). According to Buchanan and Nicol (2019, p. 174), information intermediaries "facilitate information needs recognition and considered [sic] purposeful action within problematic situations, are a key source of information in themselves, and a key integrative connection to other external sources not otherwise accessed; and tailor and personalise information for relevance, and communicate via incremental and recursive cycles that take into account learning needs".…”

“…Intermediaries include support workers (Buchanan et al. , 2019), social workers (Sabelli, 2012), nurses (Buchanan and Nicol, 2019), care workers, volunteers and family members (Cruickshank et al. , 2020).…”