Improving Comprehension of Medication Information: Implications for Nurse-Patient Communication

Older adults with chronic illness have complex medication regimens that require an understanding of a wide range of information. The impact of patient characteristics (e. g., cognitive ability), health documents (language and multimedia), and the communication context (available time to communicate) in which older adults understand the information needed to take medication safely are considered to identify recommendations for nurses to communicate effectively with older adults. This article focuses on visually presented information (text and graphics) to motivate suggestions for improving patient education materials. Information communicated during provider-patient encounters is also considered, with implications for improving nurse-patient collaboration.