How healthcare public relations professionals disseminate public health information has far-flung effects. These professionals must provide timely, accurate public health updates to the right audiences. At the same time, they must ensure that their public health communications are easy to understand. Otherwise, they risk miscommunications that make it tough for audience members to get the public health information they need, exactly when they need it.
Healthcare PR professionals must tailor their communications to their target audience. In doing so, they can deliver public health messages that hit the mark with audience members. Plus, they can ensure audience members can get the most value out of public health communications.
Image Source: Pexels
Educates audience members about public health issues
As a healthcare PR professional, you can teach audience members about myriad public health issues. To understand how, consider the ways in which healthcare organizations have used drinking and driving mass media ads to educate people about the impact of alcohol on the brain.
In various mass media ads, healthcare PR pros have illustrated how alcohol inhibits a driver’s decision-making. When a person consumes alcohol, the substance enters the bloodstream and moves to the brain. At this point, alcohol impacts the brain and other organs. It then makes it virtually impossible for your body to function properly. As such, alcohol consumption can cause blurred vision and other physical symptoms that hamper a person’s ability to drive safely.
To date, some healthcare PR pros have highlighted the impact of alcohol on the brain in mass media ads. They have also leveraged drunk-driving statistics to teach people about the importance of driving sober.
In order to teach people about drunk driving and other public health issues, it pays to conduct research. Healthcare PR pros can learn about these issues and how they impact a particular audience. From here, they can deliver messages that ensure audience members know why certain issues are important—and what can be done to address them.
Engages with a wide range of communities
Public health issues, like the race gap in prenatal care, fall under the radar in some communities. Healthcare PR professionals can bring these issues to the forefront of these communities. Then, community members can learn about such issues and work together to address them.
Robust public health communications promote community engagement, particularly in communities where healthcare divides are present. Communications strategies can be created that educate community members about a specific public health issue. They can also provide community members with resources relating to the issue. This enables community members to get insights into a public health issue and its impact. It can drive people to take measures to address the issue as well.
To engage a community on a public health issue, healthcare PR pros must plan accordingly. They can conduct PR surveys and questionnaires to learn how community members feel about a public health issue. In addition, the PR team can engage with local leaders to brainstorm ways to educate community members about this issue. This enables them to find the best ways to deliver messages that educate community members about a public health issue and inspire them to take action.
Prompts learning and constant improvement
There are many tried-and-true media relations best practices for healthcare that are used every day. For instance, public health messages can be delivered across a variety of channels. Spokespeople may also be selected to share public health insights in communities, putting a recognizable, trustworthy face to the messages. These methods provide immense value as they enable healthcare PR pros to quickly and efficiently educate large groups of people about public health issues.
In the public health sector, PR professionals must remain diligent. They must search for ways to fine-tune their messages and extend their reach. This ensures that healthcare PR pros can continuously discover the best ways to communicate with any audience.
Public health messaging should be analyzed periodically, too. PR metrics that demonstrate impact can be tracked, including the percentage of media coverage or a sentiment analysis, to evaluate the effectiveness of messaging. Over time, this data can generate insights that can then be used to optimize public health communications.
What healthcare PR means for public health
When it comes to educating people about public health issues, communication is everything. Healthcare PR pros can be difference-makers in public health communications. They can deliver messages that ensure audience members can stay up to date on public health topics.
If you work in healthcare PR, carefully consider your target audience with all public health communications. You can then educate audience members about public health issues. Most importantly, you can ensure that audience members understand the impact of such issues and make informed decisions about them.
