A Health Literacy Seminar and World Café was held at RCSI University of Medicine and Health Sciences on 1 September, bringing together healthcare professionals, educators, students and literacy advocates to discuss how health literacy can be better incorporated into healthcare education. The seminar highlighted the important role healthcare professionals play in ensuring patients can access, understand and act on health information, and the consequences that literacy difficulties can have on a person’s experience of the health system. The IPU was represented at the event by Professional Services Pharmacist Sinead McCool and fourth-year placement students Aoife Byrne and Emer Rudden.

Michael Power, a Literacy Ambassador with the National Adult Literacy Agency (NALA), shared his personal experience of growing up with literacy difficulties and highlighted the impact these can have when navigating healthcare. Colleen Dube, CEO of NALA, discussed the importance of recognizing and responding appropriately to literacy challenges, while Dr Talent Nyamakope, Health Literacy Lead with the Adult Literacy for Life, discussed the scale of literacy difficulties in Ireland.

A major focus of the seminar was on how health literacy can be incorporated into the education of future healthcare professionals. Speakers from UCC and RCSI shared examples of initiatives aimed at integrating health literacy into undergraduate health and social care education, with emphasis on practical communication skills and accessible patient information.

A World Café led by Dr Patrick Moynagh explored how health literacy education could be designed and delivered. Participants emphasized that it should be reinforced throughout healthcare education rather than treated as a once-off topic, while also identifying practical challenges including curriculum demands, funding and assessment.

For community pharmacy, the relevance is clear. As pharmacists take on an expanding role in direct patient care, recognising literacy difficulties and communicating health information in an accessible way can support safer medicines use, informed decision-making and better patient outcomes.

The seminar reinforced that improving health literacy is a shared responsibility, requiring healthcare professionals to communicate information in ways people can access, understand, and use.