Hcs 490 Health Education Campaign Research Paper

Education Campaigns
Carrie "Shellie" Cobbs
Health Care Consumer: Trends and Marketing
HCS 490
Lacey Berumen
October 06, 2013
Education Campaigns
Education campaigns are a widely used method of sharing information with consumers. According to the Centers for Disease Control National Prevention Information Network (CDCNPIN) “Health communication can take many forms, both written and verbal, traditional outlets and new media outlets” ("Communication," 2013, p. 1). Public health campaigns found huge success when posters, placed for widespread viewing, helped reduce injuries and the spread of disease. Tuberculosis (TB) posters educated citizens about covering their mouths when they coughed or sneezed to help minimize the spread of TB.
Education campaigns continually morph with how they inform the population with changing forms of communications as technology advances. Poster, radio, television, and social media health campaigns have educated citizens in every country.

One benefit to the patient
One benefit to the patient from health education campaigns is the ease of getting information.
When a patient receives health information from a health education campaign the patient has multiple modes of communication. Flyers, billboards, radio and television advertisements, and social media deliver messages from safe sex, quitting smoking, eating healthier, and getting more exercise to the public. Developing health education information on so many different modes of communication allows the patient to process the information and decide if the patient wants to research getting more information. Current health education campaigns have links back to a website that give additional information if wanted by the patient.

Maintaining patient confidentiality
Mass publication of education campaign materials is the best way to maintain patient confidentiality with the patients seeing or hearing the information and seeking out further information on their own. This method of communication allows the patient the freedom to gather more information as needed and not have to worry about a violation of his or her confidentiality.

Effective means of
communication
Health education campaigns are an effective means of communication between the patient and provider because it opens the door of information the patient has received to conversations with his or her health care provider. Health education campaigns inform the patient just enough that he or she needs to seek out additional information and his or her health care provider is a good resource to use. Brad Love, and assistant professor of advertising at The University of Texas at Austin College of Communication says, “By understanding the bigger public conversation, health care providers can better address misunderstandings and promote thoughtful conversation among consumers” (Byerley & Love, 2013, p. 1).

Different communication
Health care education campaigns differ from other forms of communication because of the way the message delivery.
Repeating a vague message over multiple modes of communication leaves the consumer wanting more information or ignoring the message because it does not apply to him or her. Campaigns leave the patient in control of the amount of additional information he or she needs to access.

Media and social networking
Combining marketing and social networking is what education campaigns have strived to do because their inception although the mode has changed over the years. Social networking as currently known is done on the Internet on specific websites instead of in churches, at work, or a town meeting. Social media has exploded in recent years and provides an enormous audience for distributing health care information. The British Medical Journal states, “Social marketing is effective on a population level, and healthcare providers can contribute to its effectiveness” (Evans, 2006, p. 1).

Marketing health care products or services
Education campaigns promote information to the consumer and do not sell products or services. Providing general information that the consumer or patient must act upon by obtaining additional information from a website or health care provider. Education campaigns advocate the distribution of information not the selling of
products.

Conclusion
Education campaigns have been alerting citizens to the dangers, hazards, and diseases of everyday life. Smoking, cancer, unwanted pregnancy, and running into the street have been education campaigns that have affected consumers to understand the simple message or to seek out additional information. Although they seem to have blended into the daily grind of advertising, education campaigns allow the mass distribution of information through multiple modes of communication. Education campaigns are still an effective way to get health care information to a large audience of consumers.
References
Byerley, L., & Love, B. (2013). Research helps explain patient knowledge of vaccines, providing insight for health care providers and educational campaigns. Retrieved from http://communication.utexas.edu/news/research-helps-explain-patient-knowledge-vaccines-providing-insight-health-care-providers-and
Evans, W. D. (2006). How social marketing works in health care. Retrieved from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1463924/
Social Marketing and Education Campaigns. (2013). Retrieved from http://www.cdcnpin.org/scripts/campaign/strategy.asp