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School of Pharmacy to launch a 'health literacy' training programme
The country's first health literacy training programme for healthcare professionals will be introduced in University College Cork this January.
This follows the establishment of a new partnership between the University, the National Adult Literacy Agency (NALA) and healthcare company MSD which has one of its five Irish manufacturing sites in Cork.
Health literacy is defined as the degree to which people can obtain, process and understand basic health information and services to make appropriate health decisions.
This new programme was developed with input from the Irish Pharmacy Union (IPU) and the Nursing & Midwifery Board of Ire land (NMBI).
Dr Laura Sahm, Lecturer in Clinical Pharmacy, UCC said: "Limited health literacy is a significant and growing issue in Ireland and one which we know can have drastic consequences for patients. This new module is an exciting development which we hope will bring Ireland closer to its European peers in tackling levels of limited health literacy, an issue which can be readily improved by making it a priority in the education of all health professionals."
General Manager of MSD 's Brinny site, Matt Corcoran added: "We are committed to helping patients understand why they have been prescribed medicine and how they need to take it, and it is our hope that this new module will enable healthcare professionals to help patients better understand health information and ultimately improve health outcomes."
The Health Literacy for Health and Social Care Settings (MH5001) module is open for registration and the first 20 applications will receive a bursary from MSD of €150 towards the overall fee.
• Log on to http://www.ucc.ie/en/study/postgrad/courses/cpdmodules/healthliteracyforhealthandsocialcare/