title: Exploring health literacy competencies towards patient education programme for Chinese-speaking healthcare professionals: a Delphi study.
abstract: To achieve consensus on a set of competencies in health literacy practice based on a literature review and expert consultation.
  
  
  
  Hospitals and community health centres in Taiwan.
  
  
  
  A 2-stage modified Delphi study involving a literature review was conducted, followed by qualitative interviews and 3 rounds of email-based data collection over a 3-month period in 2011.
  
  
  
  15 Chinese healthcare practitioners with more than 6 months' experience in patient education were interviewed to collect data on health literacy practice. 24 experts (12 academic scholars in health literacy and 12 professionals with training related to health literacy practice) were invited to participate in the Delphi process.
  
  
  
  Qualitative data from the interviews were analysed and summarised to form 99 competency items for health literacy practice, which were categorised into 5 domains of health literacy practice including those pertaining to knowledge and skills. Consensus was reached on 92 of 99 competencies, using a modified Delphi technique.
  
  
  
  The 92 competencies in health literacy practice embraced core components of patient education in the Chinese healthcare profession.
authors.affiliation: School of Nursing, Chang Gung University of Science and Technology, Tao-Yuan, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Li-Chun
authors.initials: LC
authors.lastname: Chang
authors.affiliation: Institute of Clinical Nursing, National Yang-Ming University, Taipei, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Yu-Chi
authors.initials: YC
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: School of Nursing, Chang Gung University of Science and Technology, Tao-Yuan, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Fei Ling
authors.initials: FL
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.affiliation: Department of Health Management, I-Shou University, Kaohsiung City, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Li-Ling
authors.initials: LL
authors.lastname: Liao
mesh_terms: D002983:Clinical Competence / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D003697:Delphi Technique; D057220:Health Literacy / Q000379:methods*; D006282:Health Personnel / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D010353:Patient Education as Topic / Q000379:methods*; D013624:Taiwan
keywords: Delphi method; competencies; health literacy; health profession