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Mary Ann Nemcek and colleagues describe how to prepare a poster for professional and practice use at conferences and in the workplace
Summary
Communication is a direct driver of quality health care and creating a poster is an effective strategy for communicating with primary care nurses and for teaching patients about preventing illness or improving their health. This article outlines key elements of a successful poster, including layout, flow, presentation and clarity, and suggests that well-designed posters can be an eye-catching alternative to other text-heavy forms of communication.
Keywords
Communication, poster presentation, primary care settings, patient education
CREATING A poster is an effective strategy for communicating with nurses in a variety of settings, especially primary care where practice sites may be geographically dispersed. While presenting posters has become an expectation for professional development, most nursing curricula do not include instruction for creating and presenting posters. This article describes the key steps in the process. Settings where the primary care nurse will use poster presentations, such as the worksite and professional conferences, are discussed for unique requirements. Finally, recommendations for presenting the finished product are given.
The ability to present a professional poster is an essential skill in primary care nursing, especially when primary care practice sites are spread over several campuses. The use of posters enables communication of the same information at the same time to everyone. Posters can be used to teach staff how to use new equipment, describe clinical innovations, explain patient educational strategies, facilitate discussion of clinical outcomes, present evidence-based practice guidelines or report research findings (Halligan 2008). It is important to keep patients up to date with new disease management products, best illness prevention strategies and company policy changes.
Poster presentations offer many advantages over more traditional forms of communication such as lectures. An audience of any size can be captured, including individuals or groups. Posters provide a visual display that can stand alone or give the presenter an opportunity to interact with participants (Berg 2005).
While the primary care practice site is the focus of this article, staying current as a professional nurse and sharing best practices with colleagues are vital for ensuring patient care quality in any setting. Often seen at international research conferences, posters also fit well...