A scoping review: The personal health literacy of staff in adult social care and adult nurses, as measured by a validated questionnaire

Introduction: Personal health literacy is the ability to find, understand and use health information to support your own or someone else’s health. Levels of personal health literacy can impact caregivers’ ability to provide care to care recipients. Care workers and nurses play key roles in the provision of adult social care. Training and education for care workers in adult social care in the England vary and over 20% of nurses and care workers are from abroad. This means educational background and therefore personal health literacy levels may vary. Objective: The objective of this scoping review is to understand what existing literature there is on the personal health literacy levels of adult nurses and paid care workers in adult social care. Inclusion criteria: This scoping review will look at the personal health literacy of paid care workers and adult nurses. This study will exclude papers looking at the health literacy of informal/unpaid caregivers or parental caregiver and other types of healthcare professionals or health and social care students. Methods: 5 databases will be searched including: OVID Social Policy and Practice, OVID Medline, EBSCO ERIC, EBSCO CINAHL Plus and Scopus. Grey literature from key health and social care organisation in England will also be reviewed. The search was conducted on 20/05/2026 and results were restricted from 2006 onwards. Citations will be screened by two independent reviewers first by title and abstract and then by full text. Data extraction will be completed by two independent reviewers and results managed and presented by the first author.