<p>If you are a doctor or health care practitioner, you likely have been faced with multiple and varied occasions to write. For many of you this may be excruciating and not what you signed up for. Charting patient visits is one thing, but Web site content, newsletters, brochures, handouts, presentations, letters, and articles are another. Whether or not you are skilled at or interested in writing, giving your written material the attention and respect it deserves can significantly improve your success as a doctor, teacher, and business owner.</p><p>Writing is intimately tied to patient communications, marketing, teaching, and scholarship. If your writing doesn’t reflect your professional and personal abilities, you are at risk of being misunderstood, or worse disrespected. You may have exceptional abilities or knowledge, but if your marketing materials, educational packages, or presentations are poorly written, you risk losing opportunities to do your best work.</p><p>Even a seemingly insignificant communication can result in a misjudgment. In a clinic I once ran, a doctor wrote a homeopathic prescription for a patient that included directions. As you might imagine the words “under your tongue” were involved, and “tongue” was unwittingly misspelled. At the front desk, the patient commented, “I don’t know if I can trust a doctor who doesn’t even know how to spell ‘tongue’.” Although an absurdly minor miscommunication, it was enough to cause this patient not to return for care. Consider the impact more involved written expressions of your work may have on readers.</p><p>This includes your peers as well. If you give a presentation on an original clinical outcome in your practice and your PowerPoint slides are full of careless errors, some listeners may excuse you because, well, you’re not a writer. Many, however, will equate the level of care you give to writing, referencing, and presentation as an indication of the level of professionalism with which you conduct your practice and studies. What you offer in writing directly represents you, your work, and to what degree you can be trusted. Integrity is critical in the ways you practice and in the writing that represents your practice.</p><p>There are a few simple things you can do to improve your writing experience and quality, whether it is a patient letter, newsletter, Web site content, or peer reviewed journal article. They will help you communicate what you know, who you are, and what you are offering with more clarity, authority, and authenticity.</p><p><br />1. Identify your audience. Consider their familiarity with your topic and education level.<br />2. Free up what you mean to say. Pay attention to your heart. Take time to hand-write notes, journal, diagram, or create an outline for your project. Don’t worry about how it sounds, the organization, or grammar at this point. You may want to spend five minutes, a half hour, or more depending on the extent of the project. <br />3. Create a list of main points and key words or a detailed outline. <br />4. As you begin writing, ask yourself along the way: Am I saying what I mean, will my audience understand my terminology, level of information? Is the organization and content achieving my communication goal?<br />5. Let your first draft sit. If time allows wait a day before editing. If your deadline is tight, at least go for a walk, run an errand, or eat a meal before returning. <br />6. When revising, read it out loud to yourself. Read it backwards to more easily find errors—grammar, spelling, and typos. <br />7. Have a couple of people you trust read it to check comprehensibility, impact, grammar, spelling, and typos. </p><p>It is to your advantage to give your professional writing—Web site content, newsletter, brochures, handouts, presentations, letters, articles, etc.—the attention and importance it requires. Words are powerful; you can control whether they work for you or against you. If you are not a writer, or have no desire to write, find someone who can, or someone who can edit your work. Rather than shy away from needed writing, gather the resources to get the job done. Find a professional writer, editor, or proofreader. Potential patients, current patients, and colleagues will not only appreciate you for it, but also better understand you. <br /><br /><i> </i></p>
2008-06-23T20:58:11Z
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the-writing-side-of-your-profession-and-practice
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2008-06-26T14:08:19Z
2008-06-26T14:08:19Z
<p>You thought becoming a health care practioner meant escaping writing? If you are in practice, you know it's not possible--patient letters , chart notes, handouts, website copy, promotions, presentations, etc. What can you do to make writing work for you?</p>
The Writing Side of Your Profession and Practice
0
2009-02-24T09:44:52Z