Identifying and Overcoming Barriers to Learning: Low Literacy Levels and Vision Impairment in Elderly Diabetics (Nursing Practice‪)‬

What Barriers? Have you ever asked your elderly diabetic how their blood sugar was running and they say, "I didn't take it today" or they make excuses about the subject. It may be that your elderly diabetic has low health literacy or vision impairment. Knowles' principles of adult learning have been used to identify learning styles. Knowles realized that adults learn differently than children. He described adult learners as people who perform best when asked to use their experience levels to apply new knowledge to solve real-life problems. Adult learners' motivation is an internal process that occurs from curiosity (as cited in Billings & Halstead, 1998/2005). This motivation to learn can be harnessed to encourage any new learning skills to overcome the barriers of low health literacy and decreased vision while managing their diabetes. Adults will make a commitment to learning when the learning goals are useful and relevant. Past experiences and maturity provide insights to adult learners. Social interaction and a unique learning environment are important to the adult learner (Billings & Halstead, 1998/2005). Elderly diabetics can learn new skills and overcome barriers with the proper educational tools.