Essentials In Writing Patient Handouts

By Mary Gibson


Physical exercise is important in promoting recovery from some types of illness. The doctor may thus recommend a list of physical exercises, commonly termed as physical therapy to promote the recovery. The recovery plan is then printed out in Patient Handouts to help guide them in carrying out the activities. A common guide used is the Home Exercise Program (HEP). Details on how to write the plan is include herein.

For the handout to work appropriately, details and accuracy are highly considered. The content of the document will thus aim to provide complete, detailed and accurate procedures to help guide the user. For instance, the handout will ensure that it explains the procedure of carrying out an exercise in details by including the time it should take, how many times to repeat it and the position to do it.

Ensuring the plan is written in a clear and organized structure is also essential in writing the plan. The plan should thus contain a step by step guide to help the patients change exercise procedures as well as how to carry out an exercise. This will make it easier for the clients to fully acquire the benefits of the physical therapy.

It may be difficult to explain some procedures or processes using texts. In such an instance, the use of diagrams or pictures is encouraged as they promote understanding by providing a visual representation. The features can not only help in understanding the complex procedure but will also supplement the content in the texts.

While considering the text, there are various factors that guide its use in the handout. The most important fact is to ensure that the texts are legible and clear to the extent that allows someone with a deficit vision to clearly read the texts. This can be easily achieved through using a font that is over the size 12 for clarity and legibility.

The content in the plans should also be written in an easy to understand language; that is a child can be able to read and understand clearly. This ensures that all types of patients can clearly follow the therapy. The content should also be written in an informal writing style so as to make the patients feel as if you are communicating with them directly.

In most cases, some patients will fail to fully complete their physical therapy if the exercises involved are too hard and complex to carry out. Often this is due to discouragement after repeatedly failing or getting tired from the exercises. The writer of the plan should thus ensure that the exercises that the person is expected to do are simple and light to encourage patients to complete the therapy.

However detailed and comprehensive the handout, the doctor will still have to give a brief or detailed verbal account of what the physical therapy will involve. This is necessary as it increases the patients understanding of the treatment plan as well as offer an opportunity for the doctor to encourage the patients to complete the therapy. For those who are about to create handouts, take every detail into consideration.




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