Health promotion is increasingly seen as a role of the NHS and its practitioners (Boyce 2009). Darzi (2008) recommended that the NHS should be equally active in promoting good health as it is in treating disease and therefore modern nurses require knowledge of effective health education materials to enhance health promotion. This assignment will seek to appraise a health promotion leaflet (Appendix 1) related to a current NHS health campaign and which for the purpose of this assignment will be referred to throughout as 'the leaflet'. Appraisal of this leaflet will include: an explanation of why this leaflet was chosen; the source of the leaflet; the relevance of this leaflet to the role of the nurse in promoting health; an analysis of the design of the leaflet including effectiveness of both illustration and textual layout by way of reference to supporting evidence; an evaluation of the information content contained within the leaflet; a short critique of the overall readability of the information using a widely accepted readability test and supporting guidelines; a brief consideration of the target audience and subsequent ethical considerations and lastly an overview of the assignment with reference to application to practice and future research. Firstly the leaflet was chosen as it is part of a current NHS health promotion campaign aimed at raising awareness of risk factors of hepatitis C contraction and to encourage at risk individuals to seek testing and treatment for the disease. Produced in 2009, the leaflet is an example of a current health promotion leaflet produced in the UK for the National Health Service. ...read more.
Evaluating Health Information
Health information can be extremely useful, empowering us to make important health decisions. However, health information also can be confusing and overwhelming. Given the wealth of information available through the Internet, journals and other sources, it's important to be able to assess its quality....