Authors

  1. Morse, Brenna L. PhD, RN, NCSN, CNE, PMGT-BC

Article Content

Nurse educators are on a continuous quest to mix nursing knowledge with real-life application and fun during class sessions. One class activity helpful for a unit review is creation of public service announcements (PSAs), which have been successfully implemented in health communications and nursing courses.1,2 Student pairs were provided a topic from the course unit, and they identified the top nursing care, family teaching, or safety concerns about the topic. Students then determined the component that was most important for patients and caregivers to know and developed a PSA to be displayed in a clinic or perhaps viewed on a social media page. Groups used slideshow presentation software or free online design resources such as http://www.CANVA.com to create their PSA. Some examples of messages students identified as most important to communicate were hydration for children with sickle cell disease and aiding children with bleeding disorders to tip their heads forward instead of back when experiencing epistaxis. This activity allowed for a review of nursing care for the unit's major topics and discussion about clear messaging in health care, health literacy, and separating information that is "nice to know" and "need to know" for patients and families.

 

References

 

1. Curran T. Creating public service announcements on health disparities in the United States: a semester-long assignment [published online October 20, 2020]. Commun Teach. 2021;35, 35(2):149-154. doi: [Context Link]

 

2. Elliott RW. Public service announcements as an innovative teaching strategy for older adults. ABNF J. 2020;31(1):31-34. [Context Link]