How to host a top-notch fair
Promotion, funding are key to success
Organizing a successful event to promote Health Education Week takes time and funding. It isn’t something that can be hastily put together at the last minute. Most patient education managers take charge of the planning with the help of the patient education committee.
Following are a few strategies your colleagues have used that you might find helpful:
• Promote the event.
If possible, solicit the help of your marketing/public relations department, advises Sandra Warren, MSN, RN, patient education coordinator at DCH Regional Medical Center in Tuscaloosa, AL. Marketing/public relations staff can devote more time to reaching the local media by sending press releases and calling to set up television and radio interviews, she explains. Often, local media will provide a few minutes of on-air time to promoting local events.
Include churches
To promote the health fair the hospital was organizing for Health Education Week, Warren also sent letters to all the churches in the community.
"One pastor told me that they were sending a church van to pick up some of their elderly members to take them to the fair. These elderly church members couldn’t afford flu shots or cholesterol screenings and wanted to take advantage of those offered at the fair," says Warren.
About a week in advance of an educational resource fair at Franklin, IN-based Johnson Memorial Hospital, Janette Helm, MA, RN, CHES, director of education and training, put an ad in the local newspaper. Also, she distributed fliers at the hospital. Members of the patient education committee took them to local merchants in the community for distribution.
• Purchase ASHET materials.
The Chicago-based American Society for Healthcare Education and Training (ASHET) sponsors Health Education Week and provides a multitude of promotional materials at varying costs. Sharon Moore, BSN, patient education coordinator at Rapides Regional Medical Center in Alexandria, LA, used these materials to focus attention on the importance of patient education. Moore put posters up on each unit and gave department heads buttons for their employees to wear.
Win a prize
Helm used materials she purchased at ASHET for door prizes at her health resource fair. The prizes she selected were travel mugs and canvas tote bags. (For information on how to order materials, see editor’s note at end of this story.)
• Provide funding.
Moore, who gave awards to outstanding patient educators, spent about $700 on Health Education Week. Expenses included plaques and T-shirts for winners and promotional materials purchased from ASHET.
Each individual department at DCH Regional Medical Center funded its booth for the health fair held at a local mall, says Warren. Funding for any additional expenses, such as promotional materials, came from the marketing department.
• Keep plans in mind year-round.
In 1996, Moore launched the illuminator awards for outstanding patient educators at her medical facility. She had a friend who was a graphic designer create a cartoon light bulb as the logo, and she found a small stuffed light bulb in a novelty catalog to attach to the plaques. With the theme in place, she now keeps her eyes open year-round for items to enhance the awards event. She looks through all novelty catalogs she finds and recently saw a light bulb lapel pin she is purchasing for the 1997 awards.
[Editor’s note: ASHET has Health Education Week tote bags, T-shirts, travel mugs, key rings, buttons, motivation pins, and posters available for purchase. For a price list and order form, contact: Jim Coleman, Ltd., 970 E. Northwest Highway, Mount Prospect, IL 60056. Telephone: (847) 398-7194. Fax: (847) 398-0043.]
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