Writing in the Health Professions, 1st edition

Practical, applied, and up-to-the-minute, Writing for the Health Professions teaches students, healthcare professionals, and professional writers the essential skills in medical and health communications.

Drawing on her extensive experience as a nurse, cardio-pulmonary technician, medical writer, and writing teacher, Barbara Heifferon addresses the communications requirements of the healthcare professions and those who write in these high-tech fields. This comprehensive text covers writing situations and documents common in hospitals, clinics, HMOs, health insurance companies, public health campaigns, and other healthcare environments. Special attention is given to visual and electronic forms of communication, including Web sites and multimedia productions.

• Presents a variety of genres and documents, including patients charts and histories, progress notes, procedural reports, handbooks, newsletters, brochures, websites, proposals, grant writing, and insurance documents (Part 2).

• Addresses the importance of collaboration in team-generated health communication projects.

• Devotes an important early chapter to the ethics of medical writing (Ch. 2).

• Includes a chapter on electronic medical writing, which includes coverage of Web sites, medical software documentation, audio/video/multimedia, PowerPoint™, and more (Ch. 11).

• Stresses the importance of document design and effective visual communication (Chs. 3 and 10).

• Introduces concepts and issues in multicultural and international medical communications (Ch. 9).

• Emphasizes the importance of audience analysis and an understanding of the rhetorical situation in creating usable health documents (Ch. 1).