Project details

Background

People nowadays have easier access to health information and are more involved in decisions about their health. For this reason, it is increasingly important that they have critical health literacy (Cusack et al. 2018). Critical health literacy is the skill to critically analyze health information and use this information for informed decisions in personal situations. Research shows that less than half of the German population has sufficient critical health literacy (Cusack et al. 2018; Schaeffer et al. 2018; Schaeffer et al. 2021), interventions to increase critical health literacy should start in childhood and adolescence, as children can be reached over a long-term period and thus develop the relevant skills (Paakkari et al. 2019; Fleary et al. 2018).
Selected federal states in Germany conducted initial pilot projects to implement school nursing (e.g. health professionals in schools, school health professionals), which were partially continued (Manz 2021). The aim is, among other things, to strengthen health literacy among children and school staff (Sauer et al. 2018). Research findings from the pilot projects suggest a potential benefit of school-based healthcare for the health literacy of school children, their parents and teachers (Buhr et al. 2020).
School nurses, with sufficient critical health literacy and strategies to teach it, could play a key role in increasing critical health literacy among school children.

Aims

The aim of this research project is to develop and pilot a complex intervention (education) to promote critical health literacy among school nurses at general education schools in Germany, in order to promote critical health literacy among pupils at general education schools. The long-term goal of the intervention is to improve the health literacy of vulnerable groups.

Methods

This research is a mixed methods study design. The methodology is based on the MRC framework for developing, piloting, evaluating and implementing complex interventions (Skivington et al. 2021) and consists in two phases. In addition to a systematic literature review, an online survey, focus groups and expert interviews as well as hospitations with school nurses (e.g. health professionals in schools, school health professionals) will be conducted in Germany. Based on these results, a training course will be developed to increase critical health literacy. This training will subsequently be piloted in order to test its comprehensibility, feasibility, usability and acceptance. For this purpose, focus group interviews and questionnaires will be conducted and subsequently analysed using qualitative and quantitative methods.

Expected results

The results should provide indications on how critical health literacy can be increased in school nurses and provide a basis for further research in the field of critical health literacy.