It is increasingly becoming evident that patients who are well educated about their illnesses are likely to adhere to treatment than those who are not. This is likely to result into better outcomes. There are many channels of communication that can be used. Each is associated with a number of benefits and downsides. The choice is usually determined by factors such as cost, accessibility and effectiveness. Patient handouts are increasingly becoming the preferred choice for many centers.
You need to understand your target audience first since they will determine the content. Specific determinants include the age, gender of patients and the kind of diseases and medical conditions being treated in the facility. You may need to do some research beforehand to fully understand all these aspects. If you are faced with large and heterogeneous group, try segmenting it into smaller groups.
Once you have identified your target audience and their needs, the next thing is to come up with the content. You may need to create an outline or rough draft and make adjustments gradually until you get the final message. It is important that the vocabulary that is used can be easily understood by the patients. This is may mean that you choose shorter and concise sentences as opposed to long ones with too many details.
There are different formats that one can choose from. The first is based on titles and subtitles. The title addresses the main topic while the subtitles serve to provide a little more information on the topic under discussion. For instance, if the main title is diabetes. The subtitles would address issues such as the risk factors of the condition, the causes, treatments and complications among others. The question and answer format is another alternative.
Illustrations are an important inclusion in the handouts. One of the benefits is that they help audiences to understand the topics better. An example is the use of an image of the heart to explain cardiovascular diseases. These types of illustrations are known as educational illustrations. The other type includes the filler illustrations mainly used to make the reading experience more interesting without necessarily adding any knowledge.
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.
Advertisements can be made through handouts alongside the other information. You will likely benefit more if the advertisements are in line with the subject matter. If a brochure is discussing cancers, for instance, the advertisement may relate to interventions that can be made to manage the specific cancers discussed. Even as you do this, strive to keep the advertisements at less than 20% of the content.
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.
You need to understand your target audience first since they will determine the content. Specific determinants include the age, gender of patients and the kind of diseases and medical conditions being treated in the facility. You may need to do some research beforehand to fully understand all these aspects. If you are faced with large and heterogeneous group, try segmenting it into smaller groups.
Once you have identified your target audience and their needs, the next thing is to come up with the content. You may need to create an outline or rough draft and make adjustments gradually until you get the final message. It is important that the vocabulary that is used can be easily understood by the patients. This is may mean that you choose shorter and concise sentences as opposed to long ones with too many details.
There are different formats that one can choose from. The first is based on titles and subtitles. The title addresses the main topic while the subtitles serve to provide a little more information on the topic under discussion. For instance, if the main title is diabetes. The subtitles would address issues such as the risk factors of the condition, the causes, treatments and complications among others. The question and answer format is another alternative.
Illustrations are an important inclusion in the handouts. One of the benefits is that they help audiences to understand the topics better. An example is the use of an image of the heart to explain cardiovascular diseases. These types of illustrations are known as educational illustrations. The other type includes the filler illustrations mainly used to make the reading experience more interesting without necessarily adding any knowledge.
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.
Advertisements can be made through handouts alongside the other information. You will likely benefit more if the advertisements are in line with the subject matter. If a brochure is discussing cancers, for instance, the advertisement may relate to interventions that can be made to manage the specific cancers discussed. Even as you do this, strive to keep the advertisements at less than 20% of the content.
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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