Patients that are more educated are likely to have better outcomes after treatment than those that are deficient in knowledge. Research shows that such patients are more adherent to the treatments that have been prescribed. Communication in healthcare can be achieved in a number of ways. These include, among others, health talks, print media, electronic media and patient handouts among others. We will briefly look at how handouts can be utilized.
Identifying your target audience should be your first task. Audience specific characteristic greatly influence the content. Such will include, the nature of diseases and medical conditions being treated at the facility, the demographic characteristics of patients and the objective of the message. It is important that you conduct some research beforehand to establish what applies in your case. If you are dealing with a large heterogeneous target audience then you may need to segment it into smaller groups.
After identification of the target audience, the next step is to create the content of the brochure. The easiest way to do this is to start by creating an outline (or rough draft). Finer adjustments can be made later on before the creation of the final message. Choose your level of vocabulary carefully so that it can be understood by your target audience easily. The sentences should preferably be short and concise.
Choose the format to use based on the specific circumstances. One of the commonest formats used involves titles and subtitles. Titles usually introduce the reader to the main topic while subtopics expound the main topics further. For example, if a condition such as diarrhea is being discussed, subtitles may include the causes, prevention, treatment and complications. Another popular format that may be chosen is the question and answer format.
Illustrations are a useful addition. Educational illustrations are in particular quite useful in explaining some concepts better. An example of an educational illustration is that of the digestive tract and associated systems that is included in a handout discussing diarrhea. Filler illustrations are mainly used to make the brochure more interesting and to interrupt the monotony of reading.
You may need to involve a great deal of creativity to get the patients interested in the handout. If you modify it in such a manner that it has many other uses then the readers are likely to retain it for longer and will even make references to it again in future. Some of the ways of doing this is to modify them into items such as calendars and bookmarks.
Advertising is another major benefit of handouts. The advertisements usually run alongside the main literature and relate to the subject matter. What this means is that if the discussion is about hypertensive disease, for instance, the advertisement is related to the same. The general recommendation is that the informational content should be at least 80%.
The handouts that are utilized in patient education have become an important communication tool. These brochures have many advantages including the fact that they can be easily customized depending on client needs. Outsourcing is often done by persons that feel that they either have inadequate knowledge or time to undertake the task.
Identifying your target audience should be your first task. Audience specific characteristic greatly influence the content. Such will include, the nature of diseases and medical conditions being treated at the facility, the demographic characteristics of patients and the objective of the message. It is important that you conduct some research beforehand to establish what applies in your case. If you are dealing with a large heterogeneous target audience then you may need to segment it into smaller groups.
After identification of the target audience, the next step is to create the content of the brochure. The easiest way to do this is to start by creating an outline (or rough draft). Finer adjustments can be made later on before the creation of the final message. Choose your level of vocabulary carefully so that it can be understood by your target audience easily. The sentences should preferably be short and concise.
Choose the format to use based on the specific circumstances. One of the commonest formats used involves titles and subtitles. Titles usually introduce the reader to the main topic while subtopics expound the main topics further. For example, if a condition such as diarrhea is being discussed, subtitles may include the causes, prevention, treatment and complications. Another popular format that may be chosen is the question and answer format.
Illustrations are a useful addition. Educational illustrations are in particular quite useful in explaining some concepts better. An example of an educational illustration is that of the digestive tract and associated systems that is included in a handout discussing diarrhea. Filler illustrations are mainly used to make the brochure more interesting and to interrupt the monotony of reading.
You may need to involve a great deal of creativity to get the patients interested in the handout. If you modify it in such a manner that it has many other uses then the readers are likely to retain it for longer and will even make references to it again in future. Some of the ways of doing this is to modify them into items such as calendars and bookmarks.
Advertising is another major benefit of handouts. The advertisements usually run alongside the main literature and relate to the subject matter. What this means is that if the discussion is about hypertensive disease, for instance, the advertisement is related to the same. The general recommendation is that the informational content should be at least 80%.
The handouts that are utilized in patient education have become an important communication tool. These brochures have many advantages including the fact that they can be easily customized depending on client needs. Outsourcing is often done by persons that feel that they either have inadequate knowledge or time to undertake the task.
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