As patient education specialists, we work with health care providers and health science students to write patient education handouts. Often the request to write a handout is prefaced by this statement, “Please write this handout at a Grade 6 level.” Through the process of writing, providers discover that it is so much more than writing simple words — it requires a lot of thought and hard work, but there are benefits to this experience.

The benefits include:

• An appreciation of the patient’s experience, as learner and health care consumer.
• The importance of communicating effectively (both oral and written) with patients and families.
• An opportunity to keep current with clinical practice.
• The provision of consistent patient education across units and programs.
• A clearer understanding of the roles of other health care providers.                                                                                        

Students have stated that the process of developing handouts furthered their understanding of patient-centered education and gave them insight into the importance of teamwork.

Most people need help understanding health information

The Hamilton Health Sciences patient education team includes Tracy Hutchings (left), Dianne Tennant, Theresa Harper, and Lindsay Wizowski.

As health care providers, we ask our patients to engage in a variety of activities to manage their health. One way to help people understand health information is to write information that is easy to read and understand, and incorporates the patient’s perspective. It is quite evident that writing handouts that are clear and understandable is more than writing at a Grade 6 level. It is a well thought out, planned process that takes time, energy and patience.

Prior to developing materials, it is helpful to consider:

Health literacy. Health literacy is the degree to which a person has the capacity to get, process, and understand basic health information and services needed to make appropriate health decisions.

General literacy Research shows that low literacy skills and poor health are clearly related. General literacy may be the most important patient factor that contributes to health literacy and is composed of this set of skills:

• prose-the ability to read text
• document-the ability to use information contained in forms
• numeracy-the ability to apply basic math to numbers embedded in text
• problem-solving skills

Students have stated that the process of developing handouts furthered their understanding of patient-centered education and gave them insight into the importance of teamwork.

Suitability of materials for patient and family education. We know that the literacy demands of health materials exceed the reading abilities of the average adult. Providers need to ensure that their patient education handouts are easy to read and understand.

Plain language and clear design. Plain language is a way of writing that is easy to read, understand and use. Clear design techniques help people find, read and remember information.

In learning about these concepts, health care providers and students write with a greater understanding of the need to communicate clearly with their patients.