There is no doubt that patient handouts play a very important role in patient education. They make it easy for passage of information to a large group of clients at the same time and as a health care provider your task becomes very easy. At the same time, they are a convenient way of informing your clients about your services. When placed in the waiting areas, chances are that many of the patients will want to have a look at what is inside them as they wait for their turn.
There are a number of important things you need to know as you plan to start using these tools in your facility. Perhaps the most important of them is that you must have an objective that you wish to meet; you need to know what it is that you want to pass across to your clients. Do you want to educate patients on the management of their conditions or do you want to inform them about your services. This question must be answered in the planning stage.
You must understand your clients well. The characteristics of your client pool will determine in a great way the kind of design that will be adopted. This means that you may need to do some research as regards aspects such as the main problems affecting your clients, the kind of changes that they would like to see in service delivery, their literacy levels and so on. The research can be done from your facility using simple tools such as questionnaires and interviews.
The next thing that should be done is to determine the type of design that will be adopted. There is no doubt that cost will play a major role in determining what you will have for the design. Ensure that you have enough money to take care of the entire project. Take some time to visit several designers to determine which of them provides the best quality at the most favorable price. Other things that have to be factored in the design include the type of paper, writing style and the theme.
The content should be carefully created. Do not go into too much detail as this will be too boring for you clients. This does not mean that you just sketch your points. Rather, the work should be organized in an attractive manner with clearly identifiable topics, subtopics and brief explanations.
The language used has to be easily understood. Simple, short sentences are better than long ones at delivering a message and should be used wherever possible. The person with the lowest level of education in your pool of clients should understand the message without any difficulty. If you use any technical terms, follow them with explanations.
A few handouts are used for suitability testing. The clients used for this process are chosen randomly and their comments sought. The feedback obtained is then used to make improvements before the final copies are prepared.
Patient handouts are a very convenient way of communicating with clients in a hospital setting. They are not only cheap but have also been shown to reduce consultation times in many centers. This is because they help educate the client easing the burden on the physician.
There are a number of important things you need to know as you plan to start using these tools in your facility. Perhaps the most important of them is that you must have an objective that you wish to meet; you need to know what it is that you want to pass across to your clients. Do you want to educate patients on the management of their conditions or do you want to inform them about your services. This question must be answered in the planning stage.
You must understand your clients well. The characteristics of your client pool will determine in a great way the kind of design that will be adopted. This means that you may need to do some research as regards aspects such as the main problems affecting your clients, the kind of changes that they would like to see in service delivery, their literacy levels and so on. The research can be done from your facility using simple tools such as questionnaires and interviews.
The next thing that should be done is to determine the type of design that will be adopted. There is no doubt that cost will play a major role in determining what you will have for the design. Ensure that you have enough money to take care of the entire project. Take some time to visit several designers to determine which of them provides the best quality at the most favorable price. Other things that have to be factored in the design include the type of paper, writing style and the theme.
The content should be carefully created. Do not go into too much detail as this will be too boring for you clients. This does not mean that you just sketch your points. Rather, the work should be organized in an attractive manner with clearly identifiable topics, subtopics and brief explanations.
The language used has to be easily understood. Simple, short sentences are better than long ones at delivering a message and should be used wherever possible. The person with the lowest level of education in your pool of clients should understand the message without any difficulty. If you use any technical terms, follow them with explanations.
A few handouts are used for suitability testing. The clients used for this process are chosen randomly and their comments sought. The feedback obtained is then used to make improvements before the final copies are prepared.
Patient handouts are a very convenient way of communicating with clients in a hospital setting. They are not only cheap but have also been shown to reduce consultation times in many centers. This is because they help educate the client easing the burden on the physician.
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