Action Plans for Health Literacy - IHA Institute for Healthcare Advancement

Action Plans for Health Literacy - IHA Institute for Healthcare Advancement: "Action plans also teach problem-solving skills,' she said. 'What we should be doing is spending time to help patients enact behavior changes,' said Dr. Seligman. 'Patient-generated behavior changes are best.'

The action plan has three critical components.
It has to be:
· patient generated (self-managed),
· easily achievable (increases confidence), and
· highly specific (what, how much, when, how often).

A study assessing clinician satisfaction with action plans showed clinicians rated 75% of the talks with patients more satisfying or equally satisfying than previous talks. The majority of clinicians - over 80% - said they would continue having discussions about action plans with their patients even after the study concluded. Many of the clinicians in the study also agreed that primary care clinicians should be trained in using action plans. Dr. Seligman noted that action plans have a very high success rate overall - 83% of patients will complete them. Three weeks after starting an action plan, 79% recall making the plan, while more than half recalled the details and made behavior changes consistent with that plan."