Signage advise needed

My institution is about to change a sign that appears in all of our patient rooms. The old one was very verbose. I still find this one a bit verbose, but would like to get a variety of opinions on ways we could make it clearer.

 




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Laura Brown, M.L.S.

Clinical Librarian

Lee Graff Medical and Scientific Library

626-301-8497     626-357-1929(fax)

City of Hope | 1500 E. Duarte Road, Duarte, CA 91010-3000

laurabrown@coh.org

 

Comments

Sorry I may be a bit late with this, and this is no doubt the whole answer to making it more succinct, but has anyone suggested avoiding the word repetition and making each phrase shorter by putting, in large letters at the top, 'Expect that we...' and then starting each dot-point with the action-specific verb?

Margo Saunders
Public Health Policy Researcher/Writer
Canberra

Ditto on eliminating repetition of words. Also if you go for more active voice, you can eliminate some words. For example "you will get an identification arm band"; "your armband is checked every time we . . . . . . "; you are asked your first and last name and birthdate"

I like the comments about the repetitive "Expect that we..." not being necessary. Plus, fewer words mean less overwhelm — and bigger font, making it easier to read.

From a graphics standpoint, there are too many visuals. Here are some suggestions for simplification:

- The checkmarks on the left overpower the text, which is what you want the viewer to focus on.

- The arm seems long. If the forearm part were cropped to just before the armband, then the entire visual could be enlarged a bit.

- Do you need to repeat the armband again? What if it were just the Rx bottle and IV bag?

- Can you rotate the clipboard to the right (about 5-10 degrees) so the layout looks less rigid?

 

On looking at this again, it strikes me that a clearer and more powerful and acceptable message at the top of sign would be the message that is currently at the bottom -- the message about patient safety, which is the rationale for the whole thing. So perhaps the top of sign should read something like: 'Patient safety means...' , followed by each action (and I tend to agree that perhaps it should be more from the patient's point of view instad of what 'we' will do to you).  

- Margo Saunders

P.S. Sorry about the typo in my original message. Should have said that it no doubt not the whole answer.

As always, if you can gather a small group of your patients and ask them these same questions, it would be great! 

I think that the top message should give the idea that "We will check your armband a LOT!" OR "Why the armband is important." (Focus on ARMBAND rather than EXPECT.)

I think the main thing to look at is what you want them to know/do becuase of this sign. It sounds to me that you want them to know that they will be asked their name and have their armband checked each time they interact with a staff member, and they should be used to this. You alsowant them to know WHY, which I assume is that you have rules about checking to make sure they are the right person and that this is for their safety.

Another perspective on "avoiding the word repetition and making each phrase shorter by putting, in large letters at the top, 'Expect that we.."  

We tried a similar tactic for instructions for oral contraceptives.  We started at the top leftthand side with the words "if you miss..."  and that was followed by three sets of instructions, for one pill, two pills and three pills.  We thought the same thing--why repeat those extra words for each sentence?  But when we tested it with clients, we found they did not make the connection with those three words at the top and the instructions down the page.  They were then trying to make sense of an incomplete sentence.  They seemed not to remember the beginning of the sentence and put it together with the rest of the sentence when it appeared later on down the page.  So they were confused. 

We also asked an expert ESL teacher to look over the flyer.  She pointed out the same problem.  She said that low-literacy readers have trouble tracking across the page to begin with, so asking them to jump back and forth between the beginning of the sentence at the top of the page and the continuation of the sentence down lower on the page made it much more difficult to keep track of where they were in the sentence.

So we went back to repeating the words "if you miss.." for all three sets of pill instructions:  "if you miss one pill... If you miss two pills... and so forth.

More words, but on balance, other considerations made that necessary.

As always, it seems to depend on the message, the audience, the complexities of the situation, all the nuances.  It doesn't always seem to be the case that fewer words make easier reading.

Thanks,

Kath Anderson

Sage Words Health Communications

PO Box 302772, Austin TX 78753

www.sagewords.org

512 468-9419

Kath - That is exactly the sort of feedback that is really valuable. While it seemed to me that not repeating the intro line would make the communication simpler and more streamlined, it hadn't occurred to me that it might be tricky for people to make those word connections. Excellent and important points, and shows the value of testing.