Health Education - The Responsibility of Health Care Professionals - Essay Example

Health Education Leaflet Critique INTRODUCTION: Political and Nursing agendas for promoting health of the society are mainly based on patient information policies. In the past few years, the phenomenon of providing sensitive and extensive information about the critical matters relating to health such as appropriate measures to be taken during a disease condition, treatment regimen, prevention etc., have been considered a part of health care sector plan. Thus, it is the responsibility of every health care professional to ensure that the patients are able to make healthy choices regarding their wellbeing. For this purpose some of these policies are based on providing relevant information to the health care individuals, such as nurses, doctors, pharmacists etc. Various modes of promoting health services and knowledge programs have been conducted by a range of community centers and hospitals over the past few years. Although, Verbal communication between a patient and a doctor can never be substituted by any other information channel, but through various studies it has been proven that informative leaflets and brochures provide a satisfactory increase in knowledge of the patient (Harvey & Plumridge; Hawkey &Hawkey, 1989). If the content of the leaflet is relevant then it has its own advantages over verbal communication between patient and doctors. For example, it can provide information on various perspectives of a disease or a treatment regimen in one or two pages. Furthermore, a leaflet or a brochure can be kept for future reference and easily remembered by the patient, if he is able to read the content once or twice (Secker, 1997; Bernier & Yasko, 1991; Dixon, 1992). Gal & Prigat (2005) argues about it, although the affectivity of leaflets in promoting health is undeniable, a variety of these leaflets still fail to provide relevant information to the target audience. This may be because a lay man reading such professionally written leaflets is unable to grasp the content or writing style (Payne et al.,2000). In the paper, critical appraisal of a leaflet will be discussed. The chosen Leaflet will be critically evaluated in context of its design, writing style, organization, illustrations, aim or purpose, information provided, and its ethical agenda. ABOUT THE LEAFLET: The leaflet that is chosen for this critical appraisal is about COPD that is Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease. It is the most common and chronic lung disease that results in narrowing of the airway (such as bronchi or bronchioles) and damage to the lungs (Barnes & Godfrey, 2000; Stockley, 2007). There are two main types of COPD including; Chronic Bronchitis: It is identified by the symptoms like prolonged cough, discharge of sputum, and shortness of breath, which is a feature common in almost all lung diseases. Emphysema: It refers to destruction of alveoli in the lungs, thus decreasing the oxygen carrying capacity of lungs. The disease is almost always caused by smoking and seldom by any other factor (Halpin, 2003). The main adverse event related to COPD is that it can only be managed, but cannot be cured, just like Asthma (PubMed Health, 2011). Various bronchodilator and anti-inflammatory inhalers can be used to avoid breathlessness and in emergency situations oxygen therapy is also recommended. That is why management and precautionary information is necessary to be transmitted to the patients, so that they can make better health choices regarding COPD. The reason for choosing this leaflet is that it provides concise and relevant information to the relatively larger topic. It ensures patients where they can find help for their ailment, whereas what type of help they will be required with the medication and medication devices, including precautions and management. Bottom of Form Bottom of Form The leaflet is printed by BootswebMD.com supported by Boots. It is a health promotional resource that provides relevant information, relating to a range of health ailments, whereas, Boots UK is a pharmacy service. The leaflet is available in hospitals and pharmacies and is easily accessible by the patients of COPD or any other lung disease. Moreover, these leaflets were also being delivered and distributed by the Boots UK limited. DESIGN OF THE LEAFLET: Secker (1997) states that color can be a reason why patients are attracted towards a particular leaflet. Too dark and shocking colors make it difficult for the patients, especially older ones, to read it. Moreover, different colors invoke different feelings in the readers and the text becomes almost ineffective when a person faces such an impact (Meerwein et al., 2007; Secker, 1997). The leaflet of COPD is a very eye catching one, as it contrasts with bright colors on off white page. The color code is maintaining the aim of the leaflet and it is not too fancy so that it can easily attracts the readers, but makes it difficult for them to read it. The design and content is appropriate since the leaflet was delivered by direct distribution (picked up by the patient) and mediated distribution (handed to the patient) (Gal & Prigat, 2005). The text inside the leaflet is easy to read as it is separated by appropriate headings. The typescript of the text and heading is in different style, font size and color, thus distinguishing clearly between them. Headings are in bold type and in larger type font with proper spacing between the heading and the text, which makes it apt for the patients to locate relevant information in the leaflet (Hartley, 1985). Subheadings are used in green font in leaflet, so that most important information can be highlighted as well. Although, different fonts are preferred by different people, it is the matter of choice of the designer to select the one which is clear to read and appropriate (Hartley, 1985; Kitching, 1990). In this respect size of the font is more important than the style; minimal readable font size is 12-point type, while larger may be required by older people (Glasper & Burge, 1992; Great Britain, 2005). The font size is 14-point type for normal text and larger for the headings. This font size is readable for all the patients’ even older ones. Decorative illustrations distract the patients from the relevant information (Rohret& Furguson, 1990; Albert & Chadwick, 1992). In this leaflet, no figurative and decorative illustrations are used. Although, clearly labeled line figures describing the condition of lungs during smoking or in COPD condition, might be more helpful for the intended audience (Vahabi &Ferris, 1995) to determine the extent of terminal effects of the disease. INFORMATION IN THE LEAFLET: Written information in a leaflet should be easy to comprehend, for the purpose of delivering knowledge to people other than health care staff (Great Britain, 2005). Unnecessary information, too much clinical data, complex language, medical terminologies should also be avoided as it can confuse the patients (Barry & Weiss, 2007; Trott, Dobbinson&Griffiths,2004) in understanding the important points stated in the leaflet. Moreover, a leaflet should not be too detailed that it becomes too vast for the patient and he quits reading without completing it (Foundation of Education, Science And Technology, 1995). The readability and language of the leaflet in Appendix is appropriate. There are no complex words and unnecessary information and only relevant medical terminologies are used. The authors would have carried out the readability test for this leaflet, which is based on sentences and word length of the text. FOG TEST: The text in the leaflet in appendix consists of 15-20 words per sentence (70 words/4 sentence=17.5, which is the average sentence length in sample text of the COPD leaflet). Then words of more than 3 syllables are counted in the same sample text (11), which is then added to the average sentence length that makes it 27.5. Multiply it by 0.4 and then 5 is added to the answer to get Fog reading. In the leaflet average reading age necessary to understand the text is 16 years. UPDATED INFORMATION: The leaflet claims to be updated in April 2012, this statement asserts that recent articles and books are reviewed before publishing or printing of this leaflet.Top of Form Since current information in the health departments is of utmost importance, it must be kept in mind that outdated leaflets are not to be used or delivered to the patients. All the sources of information used to make the leaflets are also updated and accurate according to the topic of the leaflet (Vahabi & Ferris, 1995). The leaflet in Appendix is intended to produce awareness in the patients of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary disease, family and friends of the patients regarding the disease. The leaflet states general overview of the COPD, as well as its symptoms, medications that help in curing COPD, how they help, where to go for help in COPD, Precautions and Preventive measures against COPD are also stated. The Nursing and Midwifery Council code of Professional Conduct asserts that, a nurse should act to reduce the hazards and risks on patient’s health (2004) and an RN should work in team to promote the health of the patients (Debnath, 2010), thus a nurse is accountable to deliver a leaflet that is up-to-date and relevant to the target audience. Top of Form Bottom of Form EVALUATION: The health education resources should be ethical, appropriate and relevant (Noble, 2012). The resources should not be too assertive and should also avoid victim-blaming language. A health promotion leaflet should avoid advertising, whereas here the chosen leaflet for critical appraisal, is advertising Boots Pharmacy service. The leaflet didn’t use any authoritarian language to assert its aim or any scare tactics being used to attract the customer. Since it does not target a specific group among COPD patients (not even a specific age group), it cannot be considered discriminative or a part of any sexist or racist approach. The leaflet is intended to reduce the confusions and produce awareness in COPD patients; it does not raise any false hopes by exaggerating the effectiveness of any particular medication. Most of its content is based on precautionary or preventive measures. Online web source and customer care helpline is available for any inquiry or as a mean of further information. CONCLUSION: The information on the leaflet is up-to-date and is printed by BootsWebMd supported by Boots UK Limited. It is an awareness plan to increase the knowledge regarding the disease. The design of the leaflet is precise and clear, as well as its content. Use of any unnecessary medical terminology or information is avoided and more focus is put on precautions, as it is the only best approach in COPD. Font type and size is appropriate and readable by patient of any age group, though minimum age to read and understand this leaflet is found to be 16 years. No diagrammatic features were included in the leaflet, although it would have served for the purpose of the leaflet. If maximum patients are intended to benefit from a leaflet, the authors and publishers needs to follow recommended guidelines, especially in context of readability and content (White et al., 2004). 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