Transform your readers’ health with the power of effective patient education
How to Write Patient Education Materials will teach you how to:
- Apply the right tone and voice to your writing
- Write clear, concise patient education materials
- Identify the most common patient questions
- Promote health literacy and create better health outcomes
- Improve your writing through personalised feedback.
Trusted
More than 1000 students in 40 countries have taken our courses.
Flexible
Learn at your own pace, from anywhere in the world, with unlimited access.
Accredited
We’re independently accredited for quality, academic standards and professional development.
Comprehensive
12 lessons will walk you through the entire process of writing effective patient material.
Who is this course for?
How to Write Patient Education Materials is perfect for:
- Anyone who wants to write effectively for patients
- Health professionals and physicians who work on patient information
- Marketing and communications professionals who support health services
- Researchers who need to translate medical content into consumer-friendly language
- Writers who are keen to specialise in health & medical writing
- Scientists and academics looking for new opportunities
- Semi-retirees who love to communicate about health and want to keep busy.
What will you learn?
How to Write Patient Education Materials covers key concepts like:
- Providing the right amount of information without overwhelming readers
- Answering your readers' key questions
- Explaining complex medical topics clearly and concisely
- Planning and structuring effective patient material
- Writing content that your readers understand, remember and act on
- Choosing the most appropriate language for the health topic
- Mastering the art of improving your readers' health literacy.
How does this course work?
Here's what you can expect.
Instant access
- Log in and start learning immediately
- Work through the lessons at your own pace
- Email Michelle whenever you have questions.
Writing feedback
- Write a patient handout
- Send your handout to Michelle for feedback
- Get a detailed critique with action points and tips for improvement.
What's included?
Industry-leading resources to help you write high-quality patient handouts and educational materials.
- Comprehensive lessons (audio lectures AND text modules) meeting the core learning objectives
- Patient handout templates for writing about health topics, procedures and medications
- 14 free health writing webinars to enhance your learning objectives
- 25 handouts full of best-practice resources
- Downloadable audio lectures and lecture notes
- One assessed patient handout writing task to put the learnings into practice
- Lively student-only Facebook group of 880+ writers
- Lifetime access to course updates
- 1:1 support for every student
- Health Writer Hub Alumni membership including free webinars
- Loyalty discounts giving you 30% off every other course
- World-class eLearning platform for a seamless learning experience.
Course curriculum
How to Write Patient Education Materials includes 12 lessons full of best-practice writing techniques you can use straight away.
Part 1: Understanding patient education materials
- What are patient education materials?
Gain an understanding of the purpose of patient education materials, explore the difference between education and promotion, and learn about the wide variety of patient handout options. - The importance of defining the ideal reader of your patient material.
Discover how and why educating patients involves understanding their needs and key questions. - Planning and context.
Learn how to effectively plan your patient education material and consider the key factors that influence your writing choices, such as format and context.
Part 2: Structure and research
- How to structure a patient handout (with templates).
Determine the most appropriate structure for your patient education materials. Explore a variety of options for effective structure and get templates to help you write your patient education materials. - Conducting effective research for your patient handout.
Books, journal articles, websites or interviews? Learn the key sources you should rely on – and those you should avoid – when you’re researching for your patient handout.
Part 3: Language and engagement
- People, not patients – using the right language.
The language you use in your writing can engage or alienate your readers, so discover how to help – not harm – your readers’ comprehension. - Improving health literacy.
Explore the relationship between health literacy and patient education and learn techniques to help improve your readers’ health literacy skills. - How to write readable patient education materials.
Discover the essential readability techniques that will ensure your handout is easy to read, understand, follow and remember. - How to write original, engaging content.
There are so many patient education materials online, so how can you make yours different? Learn strategies for creating unique content about common topics.
Part 4: Future strategies
- Referencing options.
Discover how to effectively reference your handouts and materials in both online and offline formats. - Effective editing and proofreading strategies.
Learn how to edit and proofread your work efficiently – even when you have limited time. - Next steps and resources.
Consolidate all the techniques in this course and develop strategies to monitor your materials in the future.
Extras: COVID-19 and health writing resources
With the pandemic showing no signs of slowing down, there's never been a more significant time to learn about effective health communication. Communicating about COVID-19 is a topic that ALL health writers need to know about, as it will be a feature of health communication for years to come. To help you learn more about COVID-19 and responsible health communication, I've developed a dedicated resources page, updated regularly, which is included in your course.
Bonuses!
FREE access to the Health Writer Hub Alumni Webinar Library
- 14 webinars to enhance your learning objectives
- Watch on-demand with lifetime access
- 10+ hours of online learning included for free
- Learn about freelance writing, finding work and writing tips with webinar topics covering quoting for jobs, finding clients, CV writing, finding employed work, website essentials, subcontracting, marketing and more!
What are the opportunities after completion?
After you complete How to Write Patient Education Materials, you will have:
- Writing skills to help you write useful, engaging and readable patient handouts
- Confidence to write health content that answers the questions patients are asking
- Knowledge and templates to help you write high-quality health content in future.
Your industry expert
Who I am, and why I want to help you succeed.
Hi – I’m Michelle Guillemard, founder of Health Writer Hub (you can read more about me here).
When I launched Health Writer Hub in 2014, I aimed to create a best-practice resource to empower health writers to develop their skills, grow their careers and improve the quality of health content on the web.
Writing patient education materials isn’t easy. There’s so much content online, and how do you know what patients need to know? In How to Write Patient Education Materials, I show you how to write a useful, engaging and readable handout that will help your readers improve their health literacy and manage their health. I’ve written hundreds of patient handouts and websites about all kinds of health topics – from heart and lung disease to cancer and mental health. I created this course to help professionals AND aspiring health writers create better patient education materials and, therefore, better health in your communities.
If you’re ready to learn effective techniques for writing patient handouts and information, How to Write Patient Education Materials is the course for you!
My teaching method
I teach this course, and all my courses, through a combination of audio lectures (podcast style) and text resources. I also offer a range of video content, including bonus webinars and regular student interviews.
After experimenting with different combinations over the years and listening to student feedback, I am confident that delivering lectures in both audio AND text format is the most effective way for you to learn health writing in an online class environment.
While it’s up to you how you consume the content, you are welcome to:
- listen and read the transcripts at the same time
- listen and take your own notes
- listen away from your computer
- read the transcripts only.
Many students have told me that they like to listen to the lectures while driving, walking, hiking, running or cleaning the house – and, that’s fine as well!
Join a supportive group of like-minded health writers
When you join How to Write Patient Education Materials, you become a member of the Health Writer Hub Alumni – a smart, diverse and friendly community of 880+ health writers from around the world. Alumni benefits include:
- Loyalty discounts – 30% off any other Health Writer Hub course
- Weekly challenges – goals to keep you motivated and accountable
- Student interviews – learn the ropes from experienced students
- Extra group calls – monthly group chats with other Alumni
- Global networking – connect with health writers from around the world
- A supportive network of health writers – ask questions and share advice
- Immediate access – join the group as soon as you sign up.
Frequently asked questions
What you need to know.