Developing health information literacy in disadvantaged and dependent circumstances: the everyday role of Family Nurses

This paper examines the challenges of developing health information literacy (HIL) amongst disadvantaged and dependent populations; and from the perspective of non-information professionals occupying everyday support roles. Our participants were a team of UK Family Nurses providing outreach support to vulnerable young mothers from areas of multiple deprivations. Our data collection methods were observation, interviews, and focus group. Our participants all believe that they have an important role in developing HIL in clients, but are unfamiliar with fundamental overarching infomation literacy (IL) concepts and models. Consequently, their confidence in their own ability to develop HIL skills in clients is limited. We discuss that to extend primary healthcare practices beyond HIL support to HIL education requires not only IL training, but also an appropriate pedagogical approach adapatable to semi-structured problematic situations. We raise important questions regarding approaches to developing HIL in disadvantaged populations.