An international consortium received a European Grant of € 450,000 to develop an educational program that aims to improve the communication competences of medical students and nursing students to communicate better with older patients with low health literacy. The grant is part of the EU Erasmus+ program.

Older people with low health literacy often find it difficult to cope with illness and the associated treatment. They have difficulties to  comprehend medical information and consequently adhere to medical advice and take their medication properly is often problematic. In general these older adults have limited knowledge about illness and health. Healthcare providers often have insufficient knowledge and skills to communicate effectively with this group of older adults. Strengthening communicative skills of future healthcare providers can help improve care for these older people.

The so-called IMPACCT project is led by Andrea de Winter working at the University Medical Center Groningen in the Netherlands. The project is carried out in cooperation with partners from the Netherlands (RUG) Ireland (NUIG), Belgium (EURASHE), Italy (ARS), Slovakia (UPJS) and Germany (Jacobs University).

The coming 3 years the consortium will devote itself to developing, implementing and evaluating new communication education for future health care providers in Europe. All insights are also used to develop a range of digital classes  in a Massive Online Open Course for a wide audience. All partners hope that our joint efforts will enrich the education and will have impact on the development of competences of students. We expect that this will lead to more patient-centred communication affecting the health and well-being of older patients with low health literacy.

IMPACCT stands for IMproving PAtent Centered Communication Competences: To build professional capacity regarding health literacy in medical and nursing education.