Low levels of health literacy have been linked statistically with decreased health and quality of life, increased mortality, and financial and economic impoverishment at the individual and community levels of analysis. The problem space for this dissertation research was comprised of the problem of low levels of health literacy, problems that are antecedent to the problem of low levels of health literacy, and problems that are consequences of low levels of health literacy. The purpose of this qualitative descriptive study was to explore how nurse practitioners describe ways in which adults in an urban underserved community overcome barriers to health literacy. The POW model of health literacy served as this study's theoretical foundation. The research questions sought to address how do nurse practitioners describe the ways adults in an urban underserved community overcome the barriers of (a) access to health information, (b) interactions with health professionals, (c) low motivation to gain health literacy, and (d) not putting health information into use. The researcher used a qualitative descriptive methodology and recruited 28 nurse practitioners working in medically underserved communities. The sources of data included semi-structured interviews and a questionnaire. The researcher used thematic coding functionality in NVivo qualitative analysis software to analyze the data. The analysis revealed seven themes to address the research questions. Future research on the topic of this study should use a larger sample and include an adequate mixture of male and female participants. Future research should also use different types of methodologies. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://bibliotheek.ehb.be:2222/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]