Guidelines for producing patient information literature

Sexual health communication in COPD: The role, contents and design of patient information leaflets

Understanding need for support and information among people with COPD is important for the delivery of patient-centred care. Especially regarding intimacy matters, many people wish to remain sexually active but may be struggling to find out how, as information and communication regarding sexual health is scarce. This is especially true when it comes to people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). The present review seeks to provide an overview of the role, contents and design of patient information leaflets (PILs) and discuss their application in sexual health communication for COPD. Based on the literature, a number of key points in the design of high-quality PILs are suggested, and important areas for the improvement of patients-clinician communication are highlighted. While PILs is a commonly used format to provide information in healthcare, other formats, e.g. video and podcasts, could be explored. Prioritizing the development of material to support communication in the future is necessary to address the needs of both patients and caregivers and to support clinicians in initiating conversations about sexual health and intimacy matters.

The process of developing audiovisual patient information: challenges and opportunities

AIM

The aim of this project was to produce audiovisual patient information, which was user friendly and fit for purpose. The purpose of the audiovisual patient information is to inform patients about randomized controlled trials, as a supplement to their trial-specific written information sheet.

BACKGROUND

Audiovisual patient information is known to be an effective way of informing patients about treatment. User involvement is also recognized as being important in the development of service provision. The aim of this paper is (i) to describe and discuss the process of developing the audiovisual patient information and (ii) to highlight the challenges and opportunities, thereby identifying implications for practice. A future study will test the effectiveness of the audiovisual patient information in the cancer clinical trial setting.

METHODS

An advisory group was set up to oversee the project and provide guidance in relation to information content, level and delivery. An expert panel of two patients provided additional guidance and a dedicated operational team dealt with the logistics of the project including: ethics; finance; scriptwriting; filming; editing and intellectual property rights.

RESULTS

Challenges included the limitations of filming in a busy clinical environment, restricted technical and financial resources, ethical needs and issues around copyright. There were, however, substantial opportunities that included utilizing creative skills, meaningfully involving patients, teamworking and mutual appreciation of clinical, multidisciplinary and technical expertise.

CONCLUSION

Developing audiovisual patient information is an important area for nurses to be involved with. However, this must be performed within the context of the multiprofessional team. Teamworking, including patient involvement, is crucial as a wide variety of expertise is required.

RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE

Many aspects of the process are transferable and will provide information and guidance for nurses, regardless of specialty, considering developing this format of patient information.

The academic writing experiences of a group of student nurses: a phenomenological study

AIMS

To investigate the academic writing experiences of a group of preregistration nursing students. To explore issues surrounding how academic writing skills were developed, integrated and received into the student's educational programme and how these skills impacted on various aspects of their educational and clinical experience.

BACKGROUND

The development of an academic writing style is seen to be an integral skill that the student must be willing to learn and undertake within higher education settings. Academic styles of writing have been imported into nursing education as a consequence of its integration into higher education. I wanted to investigate the experiences of learning an academic style of writing for students early on in their nursing career. There is little, if any, research that seeks to investigate or measure these experiences of nursing students.

METHODS

A phenomenological approach to investigate the academic writing experiences of a group of preregistration students.

FINDINGS

There is an expectation that preregistration students will quickly acquire academic writing skills when most will have had little or no prior experience. There appeared to have been little emphasis placed on facilitating the development of these skills in the educational programme. The lack of emphasis and support proved to be problematical for these nursing students. The emergence of a theory-practice divide also figured strongly. Students were, however, able to appreciate the need and place for academic writing skills and most were able to identify the structural processes that were integral to acquiring such skills.

CONCLUSION

A plethora of anecdotal evidence, supported by the findings in this study, suggests that most nursing students' struggle with the demands placed upon them when writing academic assignments. The need for greater emphasis and support throughout the whole period of training are highlighted in the findings of this study. It is known that nursing loses large numbers of its students to the academic rigors of its educational programmes. Where this is the case, the findings of this study support the need for nurse educationalists and curriculum planners to revise and reform the way that they approach and deliver the demands of an academic style of writing with their students.

Information giving can be painless

Pain is an inevitable consequence following day surgery, but with effective regular pain relief minimal discomfort can be achieved. An information leaflet produced by a pain nurse specialist in collaboration with a multidisciplinary team ensures that comprehensible and non-contradictory information is given to parents. With the increased trend towards paediatric day surgery parents are significant contributors to their child's care in the postoperative period. Written information on pain relief after discharge can help parents make decisions about their child's pain management.

Importance of format and design in print patient information

PURPOSE

The purposes of this descriptive study were to: identify characteristics of print education materials that healthcare providers report as important to patients; compare whether Physician Data Query (PDQ) information that was provided in its original form, or was redesigned in color and black and white, influenced the distribution of this information; and explore whether providing PDQ information via patient information racks would increase patients' awareness of and use of PDQ information.

DESCRIPTION OF STUDY

Forty-four oncology healthcare professionals were asked to complete a survey identifying characteristics that they believed important for effective print educational materials. PDQ statements were reformatted and placed in brochure racks for a 6-month period. The number of statements distributed before and after this time period were compared. Subsequently, PDQ statements were placed sequentially for a 3-week period in brochure racks in the following formats: original form as printed from the computer, redesigned with color print; and redesigned with black ink only.

RESULTS

The following characteristics were rated "very important" aspects of print educational materials by oncology healthcare professionals: appropriate reading level; clarity; credibility of the information; whether information is current/up-to-date; and patient acceptance of material. The characteristic receiving the fewest "very important" marks was attractiveness/eye appeal. The reported low marks on attractiveness/eye appeal contradict the concurrent findings that, after the redesign of PDQ statements (change in booklet size, use of color, increase in foot size for text and headings, and inclusion of a vertical bar to separate columns), there was a ninefold increase in the number PDQ statements distributed. Eighty-nine percent of the statements distributed were the redesigned version. The use of color, however, did not appear to make a difference in the number of PDQ statements disseminated after the redesign.

CLINICAL IMPLICATIONS

In developing print education materials for cancer patients, the format, design, and placement of materials for patient access need to be considered. There are many valuable educational materials available on computer databases. Downloading the information and placing it in a brochure format may be an ideal approach for providing access to this information. Furthermore, because physicians and nurses have different priorities for printed patient education materials, it is important to involve both groups in the developments of the brochures.