Health literacy is understood as a dynamic state and low health literacy is associated with times of stress instigated by new and unfamiliar situations; such as attending hospital appointments, receiving a diagnosis, trying to access health services, and finding health information. All service providers are required to address health literacy and recognize its implications in order to communicate effectively. Nurses spend more time with patients than any other healthcare professionals and are uniquely placed to fulfill a key role as healthcare educators.

This research study focuses on the point-of-care between an older person and a senior specialised nurse within an educational encounter in an outpatient clinic within a regional hospital. The research questions are:

1. How does the patient experience the communication style used by the nurse?

2. What does the patient identify as enablers or barriers to communication by the nurse?

3. How does the communicate style used by the nurse affect the patient's understanding of health care information?

Video Reflexive Ethnography (VRE) is a participatory qualitative research method that has explored approaches to communication within the context of healthcare improvement. In this study it will be used to visualize the nurse/patient encounter. An aspect of health teaching will be video-recorded capturing the minutiae of the communication process present within the nurse/patient interaction. In the first video playback phase the patient’s responses to “seeing” themselves in the educational encounter are video-recorded. In the next reflexive phase, the nurse has the opportunity to watch the video portraying the patient’s perspective, as well as reflecting upon how he/she enacted professionally. The nurse’s response is transformative and leads to the identification of strategies that tailor health care information to the health literacy needs of older people.