As a healthcare professional educating your clients is one of your roles. A well-educated patient is likely to adhere to the treatment and manage their condition better. Some of the media that can be used in this exercise include audio-visual documentaries, public lectures in the reception areas and written materials. Patient education handouts have been shown to be convenient for both the client and the professional. We will look at how you can make your own.
Before embarking on the project, you need to conduct research that will be aimed at helping you understand your audience better. Developing questionnaires will help you gather important information such as age, medical conditions they are being treated for, social status and so on. This will help you segment the larger group into smaller more homogeneous units. You may also use your prior experience to develop literature that addresses the frequently asked questions.
Once you get the required information about your clients, the next task is to create the text. It is the most important aspect of this exercise and should be accorded due diligence. The words chosen should be appropriate target audience. Construct short, concise sentences and avoid long explanations that may confuse the reader. The question and answer approach helps readers remember most of the information.
Adopt a professional tone in your writing and if you plan to include discussions in the material on various topics, do not be biased. Present all the views that exist and let the reader make their own decision. You may include advantages and disadvantages for each of the options presented so that they find it a bit easier to decide.
You need to include some form of illustrations in your work. These will not only make the handout more appealing but will also make the message easier to understand. Colored images are in particular quite expensive to produce but they may be a necessary expense. They have been shown to significantly affect the readability of materials. If you do not have enough finances, use icons rather than actual images.
Illustrations greatly help in providing a more vivid explanation. They also make the presentation a lot more appealing and increase readability. Some types of illustrations have no educational value and are simply used as fillers. Colored images are usually quite expensive to produce which increases the overall production cost. If you do not have enough money, consider using icons instead of actual images.
Using durable materials ensures that are durable. Your clients can have the handout with them for a long time and can make references every so often. Such may be needed for persons that are on treatment for recurrent or chronic illnesses. More creative designs can also be adopted. This includes, for instance, turning one of the pages into a calendar or designing the entire document as a bookmark.
If you want patients to be compliant to their treatment then you need to educate them on the importance of this. Let them learn about the causes, the risk factors, the management of their condition and what role they are to play. Using handouts is one of the most effective ways of doing this. It is also fairly economical.
Before embarking on the project, you need to conduct research that will be aimed at helping you understand your audience better. Developing questionnaires will help you gather important information such as age, medical conditions they are being treated for, social status and so on. This will help you segment the larger group into smaller more homogeneous units. You may also use your prior experience to develop literature that addresses the frequently asked questions.
Once you get the required information about your clients, the next task is to create the text. It is the most important aspect of this exercise and should be accorded due diligence. The words chosen should be appropriate target audience. Construct short, concise sentences and avoid long explanations that may confuse the reader. The question and answer approach helps readers remember most of the information.
Adopt a professional tone in your writing and if you plan to include discussions in the material on various topics, do not be biased. Present all the views that exist and let the reader make their own decision. You may include advantages and disadvantages for each of the options presented so that they find it a bit easier to decide.
You need to include some form of illustrations in your work. These will not only make the handout more appealing but will also make the message easier to understand. Colored images are in particular quite expensive to produce but they may be a necessary expense. They have been shown to significantly affect the readability of materials. If you do not have enough finances, use icons rather than actual images.
Illustrations greatly help in providing a more vivid explanation. They also make the presentation a lot more appealing and increase readability. Some types of illustrations have no educational value and are simply used as fillers. Colored images are usually quite expensive to produce which increases the overall production cost. If you do not have enough money, consider using icons instead of actual images.
Using durable materials ensures that are durable. Your clients can have the handout with them for a long time and can make references every so often. Such may be needed for persons that are on treatment for recurrent or chronic illnesses. More creative designs can also be adopted. This includes, for instance, turning one of the pages into a calendar or designing the entire document as a bookmark.
If you want patients to be compliant to their treatment then you need to educate them on the importance of this. Let them learn about the causes, the risk factors, the management of their condition and what role they are to play. Using handouts is one of the most effective ways of doing this. It is also fairly economical.
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If you would like to provide patient education handouts to your patients or customers, come to Vivacare. Let us show you how to create your own personalized health library when you visit us online at http://www.vivacare.com today.
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