Foundational Skills for Communicating About Health

Effective communication is a core skill that nearly every health professional will need and use during their careers. Yet, few health professionals receive even basic training in how to design communications to be clear and successful. As “foundational skills,” the content in this course can be applied to both oral and written communication, within and beyond health. Learners will develop the skills to: analyze and tailor a communication effort for different audiences, develop clear messages, c

• Define and collect important information about a target audience in order to make appropriate decisions about the communication effort
• Select an audience-appropriate communications goal
• Craft a clear, concise core message for a communication effort
• Deploy at least two different types of narrative structures to support communications about health topics