Honors Program
Honors Program: Embargoed Theses
First Advisor
Georgina Bingham
Second Advisor
Erica Schauer
Date of this Version
5-2025
Document Type
Thesis
Citation
Suder, P. 2025. Minding the Gaps: A Post-COVID-19 Analysis of Patient-Caregiver Dynamics in French and English-Speaking Rural Communities. Undergraduate Honors Thesis. University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
Abstract
With rapid advancements in medicine and the science field at large, recent debates have called into question the extent to which the public truly comprehends such advancements and topics. To understand the most novel of research breakthroughs, a reader is expected to have a sufficient level of scientific literacy, to be able to not only understand the material presented but also engage with the breakthroughs that are being posed. The question of literacy extends beyond academia, however. Health literacy is an emergent topic in scholarly and institutional debate, and it is generally defined as the degree to which individual patients understand diagnoses and procedures. It also represents the efforts enacted by organizations to ensure that said patients can actively seek and acquire understanding for decisions and changes regarding their health. Where science literacy can be occasionally written off as requiring more structured, sustained intervention for populations to fully grasp, health literacy is a fundamental requirement for all individuals, to make the most informed decisions for their health and the health of their loved ones. While progress has recently been made to begin addressing gaps in health literacy through the establishment of digestible methods of health information delivery, a fundamental gap may lie in language barriers and subsequent gaps in knowledge between patients and caregivers. This work seeks to analyze the extent to which spoken language impacts a patient’s understanding of the health information provided to them, and possible solutions to overcome any potential barriers and gaps in understanding through readily available online surveys of rural patient populations and interviews of caregivers in said populations.
Comments
Copyright Paul Suder 2025.