A Mile in My Patients' Shoes: A Health Literacy Simulation for Baccalaureate Nursing Students

• Simulation can be incorporated into a large classroom format for nursing students.
• Simulation impacts student nurses valuing health literacy (HL) assessment of all patients.
• Introducing HL assessment is important before first clinical rotation.
• Empathy for patients with inadequate HL is fostered through simulation.

BackgroundIn clinical practice, nurses often overestimate patients' health literacy (HL). A classroom simulation of inadequate HL was conducted with second-year nursing students to explore its impact on HL assessment and nurse–patient communication.MethodA retrospective qualitative content analysis of 39 students' narrative responses to four open-ended questions revealed their experience of inadequate HL after being quizzed with unfamiliar medical jargon.ResultsThe following five themes emerged: empathy, nervousness, embarrassment, helplessness, and communication.ConclusionThe simulation facilitated the students' empathy for patients and their future communication with them. HL simulation should be incorporated into early undergraduate nursing education.