Creating effective patient education materials is an essential skill for all health writers who aim to connect with patients and address their specific needs and concerns. That’s most if not all of us!
Read on to explore the importance of understanding your audience to produce informative, relevant and engaging content.
The importance of audience understanding in patient education
Before you begin writing, it’s crucial to plan your content thoroughly. This planning phase starts with a clear understanding of your audience.
You cannot effectively educate patients without knowing who they are, what they need to know and how they feel about the health topic you’re covering. These points usually form an integral part of your content brief.
What is a brief?
A brief is a foundational document that gathers essential information before the writing process begins. It consists of tailored questions that help clarify your content’s objectives, tone and key inclusions.
A well-structured brief will guide you throughout the writing process, ensuring you stay focused on your goals and meet the needs of your audience.
Articulating the purpose and defining your audience
The first step in your planning process is articulating the purpose of your content and defining your audience. This clarity will keep your writing on track and relevant.
Every decision you make during the writing process should align with the purpose of your document. If you lack a clear purpose, your content may not effectively help your audience. If you start to feel confused or lost along the way, come back to your purpose. Ask yourself: Does this sentence or paragraph align with the overall purpose? If yes, keep it. If no, remove it!
Who is your audience?
Defining your ideal audience, also known as your ideal reader, is crucial. But audience definition goes beyond a vague description like “a person with anxiety.”
Instead, aim for a detailed persona: “My audience is a 25-year-old woman recently diagnosed with anxiety, living in urban Melbourne, visiting her GP for the first time.”
This specificity allows you to tailor your content to your reader’s unique situation and ensure your health communication is inclusive.
Keeping a written description of your ideal audience nearby as you write can help maintain focus and ensure your content remains relevant and engaging.
How is your audience feeling?
Understanding your audience’s emotions regarding the health topic is essential. For example: Are they feeling anxious, confused or seeking reassurance?
Recognising their feelings can inform the tone of your writing and guide you on positive language choices. For sensitive topics, such as mental health, a compassionate and empathetic tone often works best. But for straightforward topics like the common cold, you might prefer a more generic tone.
Regardless of your tone, remember that incorporating the essential rules of plain English writing is vital for creating easy-to-read patient resources.
The language you choose can either reassure or exacerbate a reader’s anxiety. You only need to put yourself in your reader’s shoes to feel this. Think about the last time you were worried about a health concern turned to Google. Remember how clinical language can increase your stress, while reassuring language tends to calm you down? Putting yourself in your reader’s shoes can help you craft messages that provide comfort and clarity.
It’s vital to consider the emotional impact of your words as you craft your resources.
What does your audience need to know?
Once you have a clear understanding of who your audience is and how they feel, you need to put yourself in their shoes and consider what they need to know about the topic. This involves identifying their goals – what they hope to gain from your material.
For example: If a patient is newly diagnosed, they might be looking for an overview of their condition, potential treatment options and lifestyle changes. When you’re writing this type of explainer patient education, follow these handy medical writing in plain English tips.
On the other hand, if they have some prior knowledge, your material can provide more in-depth information and address specific questions they might have.
Ideal Reader Planning Strategy
To aid in defining your audience and their needs, my Ideal Reader Planning Strategy can help.
Complete this planner for every new patient education project:
- Stay focused while you write
- Get clear on who you are targeting and what they need to know
- Ensure your information appeals to your ideal reader.
| QUESTION | ANSWER |
| What is the topic of my patient information? | |
| Who is my reader? | |
| How is my reader feeling? | |
| What tone suits these feelings? | |
| What does my reader already know about this topic? | |
| What does my reader want to know about this topic? What key questions am I answering? | These questions will be your content outline. |
| What is my reader’s goal with this information? | |
| What is my goal? | |
| What is my client/publisher/employer’s goal (if different from my goal)? | |
| What do I want my reader to do when they have finished reading? |
The final word
Understanding your audience is a critical step in creating patient education resources.
By knowing who they are, how they feel, and what they need to know, you can develop informative, relevant and empathetic content that addresses patients’ needs.
Focus on crafting well-structured materials that empower patients with the knowledge they seek and encourage them to take an active role in their health journey.
By mastering these elements, you’ll be well on your way to creating compelling patient education resources that truly make a difference!
