Review process improves the quality of handouts
Review process improves the quality of handouts
Input, reviewer feedback produce best results
It’s not only important to create educational handouts that patients will read; it is equally vital that health care professionals use the materials.
That’s why patient education managers must get buy-in from everyone who might be involved in using the brochure as a patient handout during the development process, says Barb Petersen, RN, patient education coordinator at Great Plains Regional Medical Center in North Platte, NE. "If someone does not feel part of the development process, they don’t seem to buy into the document very well," she says.
One of the best ways to involve professionals is to include them in the development and review process. Get all the stakeholders, directors, and anyone that might champion the use of the document involved, advises Petersen.
To determine who to involve she asks the professional who approached her about creating the handout to suggest people who might have valuable input on the topic. "I always have at least one physician and prefer two or more review all documents," says Petersen. The physicians are in the specialty area that the handout covers.
The professional review team for a chest tube document included all surgeons that perform chest tubes, the head physician in the emergency department, the emergency department director, the trauma director, the medical surgical director, and respiratory director.
To assist professionals in the review process, Petersen created a review form patterning it after a form she received from another health care facility. It has quick and easy check boxes with an area for written comments.
Reviewers are asked if the content is medically accurate and current, if it is consistent with their policy and practices, and if it covers the essential information a patient and family needs among other questions.
Advice taken
Most comments made by the reviewers are incorporated into the final copy. "I feel that the professional reviewers are the individuals with the hands-on knowledge, and I generally follow their suggestions," says Petersen.
However, multisyllable words might be changed to make the copy more readable. If suggested changes would make the copy too technical, she asks the reviewer to use explanations that would keep the handout readable as well.
With comments in hand, Petersen makes the changes and sends them out to the whole review group asking that they reply right away. During the first review process, the professional is given 20 days to reply.
The professional review takes place after the copy has been submitted by the developer of the handout and rewritten for readability and formatted. "It can’t be too complete so that you don’t want to make any changes, yet it can’t be too rough a draft or the reviewer does not get the whole picture of the document," she says.
Professional review of documents does improve the quality of the copy, she says. The tracheostomy care handout for patients was reviewed by multiple in-house professionals with few changes but did not receive any input from the requested physicians.
However, during an inservice to review techniques for tracheostomy care, the handout was made available and the physician teaching staff used the patient education guide as the primary handout. "As he then had time to read it in detail and discuss it with staff, there were significant changes made to the document," says Petersen. The line-by-line review greatly improved the quality of the document.
To help boost the use of the final handout, reviewers receive a final copy along with a thank-you letter that also provides information on how they might get copies of the handout. n
Its not only important to create educational handouts that patients will read; it is equally vital that health care professionals use the materials.Subscribe Now for Access
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