HEALTH LITERACY OF THE POPULATION AS A PRIORITY EDUCATIONAL TASK IN THE TRAINING OF NURSES: LESSONS OF THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC

This review reveals the current challenges to nursing education in improving health literacy given the high availability of information and rapidly developing e-health technologies. Health literacy is recognized by the global community as a strategic element of public health, especially with the heavy burden of the COVID-19 pandemic. The COVID-19 pandemic is accompanied by new factual data appearing in the available Internet environment, frequently changing recommendations and guidelines, including misinformation. The main source of information for the public is becoming the media. E-health literacy for dealing with too much and inaccurate information about current COVID19 infodemics requires a unique set of skills. These include the ability to find, evaluate, integrate, and apply health information from the online environment to prioritize their own problems. The new health literacy challenge is e-health media literacy. This is the understanding of information, the ability to distinguish between explicit and implicit meaning of messages, and to benefit from media messages. The most reliable sources of relevant information for patients are, in most cases, the websites of medical organizations. Preparing and posting informational and educational materials for the public on health care providers' Web sites is inextricably linked to the development of media literacy by the nurses themselves. Therefore, one of the priority areas in the training of nurses is the formation of media literacy to improve electronic health literacy of the population.