Program

Health Literacy Specialist Certificate Program

Time limit: 365 days

$1,000 Enroll

Full program description

Whether you’re new to healthcare or an experienced professional, Institute for Healthcare Advancement’s Health Literacy Specialist Certificate Program (HLSCP) empowers you with the knowledge and skills necessary to communicate more clearly, support patient understanding, and improve outcomes through health literacy. Delivered fully online via a flexible Learning Management System, the program comprises seven stackable micro-credentials — you may complete them in any order at your own pace. After passing all seven micro-credential exams, you’ll earn a digital badge, a Health Literacy Specialist Certificate, and up to 49 continuing education credits (CECs).

Program content:

  1. Community Engagement – Mobilize community partners, assess assets and needs, and implement and evaluate health literacy initiatives using the MAP-IT framework.

  2. Ethics – Explore how health literacy intersects with ethics, social justice and health-equity concepts; develop skills for non-judgmental communication and ethical research practices
  3. Language, Culture & Diversity – Break down communication barriers by applying health literacy principles to language access, interpreter/translator collaboration, cultural competence and communication with people with disabilities. 
     
  4. Public Health – Examine how low health literacy influences public-health outcomes; design accessible, actionable health-safety information; advocate for health literacy at individual, group, organizational and policy levels.

  5. Communication – Develop plain-language communication skills, design accessible written materials, identify audience needs, and apply the teach-back method to strengthen understanding.
  6. Education – Create evidence-based health-education programs for individuals and groups, tailor content to low-literacy audiences, and develop trainings for health professionals.
  7. Organizational Systems & Policies – Understand the business case for health literacy, examine links with social determinants of health, and apply health-literacy principles to organizational policies, procedures, quality and safety initiatives.