Patients should be properly educated if they are to play an active role in the management of their medical conditions and diseases. If one understands why they are suffering from a certain condition and why they have to take a certain drug at particular intervals, they most likely will adhere to the instructions. Using patient education handouts is one of the strategies that has been adopted by many health centers in a bid to pass on important information in a cost effective manner.
The design of a handout will differ depending on a number of factors. The factors include, nature of disease, the age and gender of your clients as well as the social status. To better understand these different aspects, you may need to conduct research. Design questionnaires that seek to establish some of these parameters. Patients will fill in the questionnaires as they come for the first or follow up visits.
When designing handouts for long term and terminal diseases the material that is selected must be durable. The same may be required for endemic illnesses where patient need to come to hospital during particular seasons. This may not be mandatory for acute illnesses where reference is often required just for a brief period of time.
The social status will more often than not have a bearing on the level of education. Most clients that come from poor social economic backgrounds are likely to also have a lower level of education compared to their counterparts with a well to do background. With this in mind, you will be well placed to design a message that can be easily understood by each of these groups. Provide simpler terms for technical terms whenever possible.
Apart from the choice of words, ensure that the message is brief and straight to the point. In the hospital setting where the main preoccupation is for one to get well and get back to work, long, convoluted statements may go unread by the majority. The easiest way is to design your handout in manner that there will be headings, subheadings and brief explanations below each subheading.
Use pictures and illustrations to explain some points whenever you can. Not only will they pass the message across more effectively but they will also make it more interesting. You can design the images yourself if you have some skill or hire a medical illustrator. The pictures and illustrations chosen will depend on the type of target clients.
In most cases some information is lost or interpreted differently as time goes by. To minimize this, have the clients refer to your brochures as often as possible. The easiest way to achieve this is by using incorporating the message into items that are used frequently. For example, the brochures can be designed into calendars or bookmarks. Every time the client uses these items, they get in contact with your message.
The tools may be used to the benefit of the health facility through advertisement. Clients usually will not mind going through advertisements that have been printed as a footnote or alongside the main message. Information that may be passed in this manner includes details of services rendered at the facility, the cost, physical address and so on.
The design of a handout will differ depending on a number of factors. The factors include, nature of disease, the age and gender of your clients as well as the social status. To better understand these different aspects, you may need to conduct research. Design questionnaires that seek to establish some of these parameters. Patients will fill in the questionnaires as they come for the first or follow up visits.
When designing handouts for long term and terminal diseases the material that is selected must be durable. The same may be required for endemic illnesses where patient need to come to hospital during particular seasons. This may not be mandatory for acute illnesses where reference is often required just for a brief period of time.
The social status will more often than not have a bearing on the level of education. Most clients that come from poor social economic backgrounds are likely to also have a lower level of education compared to their counterparts with a well to do background. With this in mind, you will be well placed to design a message that can be easily understood by each of these groups. Provide simpler terms for technical terms whenever possible.
Apart from the choice of words, ensure that the message is brief and straight to the point. In the hospital setting where the main preoccupation is for one to get well and get back to work, long, convoluted statements may go unread by the majority. The easiest way is to design your handout in manner that there will be headings, subheadings and brief explanations below each subheading.
Use pictures and illustrations to explain some points whenever you can. Not only will they pass the message across more effectively but they will also make it more interesting. You can design the images yourself if you have some skill or hire a medical illustrator. The pictures and illustrations chosen will depend on the type of target clients.
In most cases some information is lost or interpreted differently as time goes by. To minimize this, have the clients refer to your brochures as often as possible. The easiest way to achieve this is by using incorporating the message into items that are used frequently. For example, the brochures can be designed into calendars or bookmarks. Every time the client uses these items, they get in contact with your message.
The tools may be used to the benefit of the health facility through advertisement. Clients usually will not mind going through advertisements that have been printed as a footnote or alongside the main message. Information that may be passed in this manner includes details of services rendered at the facility, the cost, physical address and so on.
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