Foundational Skills for Communicating About Health

Foundational Skills for Communicating About Health

Instructor: Brian Zikmund-Fisher

What you'll learn

Define and collect important information about a target audience in order to make appropriate decisions about the communication effort
Select an audience-appropriate communications goal
Craft a clear, concise core message for a communication effort
Deploy at least two different types of narrative structures to support communications about health topics

Skills you'll gain

Details to know

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Assessments

22 assignments

Taught in English

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There are 5 modules in this course

Effective communication is a core skill that nearly every health professional will need and use during their careers. Yet, few health professionals receive even basic training in how to design communications to be clear and successful. As “foundational skills,” the content in this course can be applied to both oral and written communication, within and beyond health.

Learners will develop the skills to: analyze and tailor a communication effort for different audiences, develop clear messages, create logical and compelling stories, understand and apply important considerations with language as well as nonverbal communication. This course is valuable and appropriate for both beginning and experienced health professionals who need to communicate effectively with other professionals, patients, policymakers, or the broader public.. Content is relevant to public health professionals, clinicians of all types (medical, nursing, dentists, social work, etc.), health advocates, and scientists and researchers in any health domain..

In Week 1, we will consider how knowing your audience and your specific goals are the critical first steps to designing effective communications.

What's included

8 videos4 readings5 assignments1 discussion prompt

8 videosTotal 50 minutes

Fundamental Concepts3 minutesPreview module
What can go wrong?7 minutes
Audience and Goals11 minutes
Creating an Audience-Goal Worksheet7 minutes
Audience-Goals Example: Community Brochure5 minutes
Audience-Goals Example: Scientific Conference6 minutes
Audience-Goals Example: Advocacy Brief5 minutes
Audience-Goals Example: This Course Segment4 minutes

4 readingsTotal 17 minutes

Faculty Introduction and Acknowledgements1 minute
Course Syllabus10 minutes
Help Us Learn More About You!5 minutes
Note about videos1 minute

5 assignmentsTotal 60 minutes

Introductory Story of Science exercise20 minutes
Audience / Goals Practice: Public Meeting10 minutes
Audience / Goals Practice: Genetic Test Report10 minutes
Audience / Goals Practice: Annual Clinic Report10 minutes
Audience / Goals Practice: Airport Poster10 minutes

1 discussion promptTotal 10 minutes

Example of a Health Communication Gone Wrong10 minutes

In Week 2, we will focus on developing clear takeaway messages so that communications can achieve their objectives.

What's included

6 videos2 readings8 assignments1 plugin

6 videosTotal 40 minutes

The Importance of Message Prioritization6 minutesPreview module
What makes a good Central Message?7 minutes
Idea Space3 minutes
Inverted Triangle7 minutes
Inverted Triangle Examples11 minutes
Inverted Triangle Useful Structure4 minutes

2 readingsTotal 11 minutes

Half-Life Your Message Activity Instructions10 minutes
A Note About The Next Set Of Items1 minute

8 assignmentsTotal 90 minutes

Half-Life Your Message Reflection15 minutes
Evaluate summary using rubric (2)10 minutes
Create a Central Message30 minutes
How many points in a paragraph (1)5 minutes
How many points in a paragraph (2)5 minutes
How many points in a paragraph (3)5 minutes
Critique / rewrite paragraphs10 minutes
Evaluate summary using rubric (1)10 minutes

1 pluginTotal 13 minutes

VIDEO Half-Life Your Message13 minutes

This week, we focus on using plain language to avoid jargon, and continue to practice finding a clear central message.

What's included

4 videos2 assignments1 peer review

In Week 4, we will learn how to use narrative forms to tell the story of science and how to think about the larger macro-structures of messages, especially when your message is designed to advocate for your central point.

What's included

13 videos3 readings2 assignments1 peer review

13 videosTotal 56 minutes

Power of Stories4 minutesPreview module
The Link Between Messaging and Narrative3 minutes
Health Sciences & Management Can be Stories4 minutes
ABT (And, But, Therefore)7 minutes
ABT in Science Stories6 minutes
Other Examples of ABT3 minutes
ABT X 24 minutes
The Findings ABT2 minutes
Post-Interview debrief Dr. Skip Lupia4 minutes
One-pager Briefs4 minutes
Advocacy Examples: Inverted Triangles + ABT3 minutes
Advocacy Example: Repeated Inverted Triangle4 minutes
Macro- vs. Micro-Message Structures1 minute

3 readingsTotal 30 minutes

External Video (10 min): Communicating to Policymakers10 minutes
Letter to EPA: CPP Replacement10 minutes
Letter to EPA: Toxic Substance Control Act10 minutes

2 assignmentsTotal 65 minutes

Evaluate ABT x 2 examples20 minutes
Create ABT x 2 from provided research paper45 minutes

1 peer reviewTotal 60 minutes

Create ABTx2 from provided research paper for peer review60 minutes

In Week 5, we will learn oral presentation skills, create a final written assignment summarizing a scientific article for a different audience, and (optionally) create a short video presentation for a public audience.