Empowering health brands through artful communication
ABOUT ME
TL;DR - combining health expertise with a passion for creativity.
Registered Physiotherapist (PT, MScPT)
Bachelor of Health Science (BHSc)
Occupational Therapist Assistant & Physiotherapist Assistant Ontario College Diploma (OTA & PTA)
Knowledge Translation Specialist (SKTT)
Primary Author of scholarly publications
EARLY DAYS
Writing was instinctual from my early days. Before I even knew the alphabet, I was writing 'stories' for anybody who would 'read' them.
When I finally learned how to read and write, I turned to journaling and short stories, which always needed to have a picture to go with it. I couldn't leave out the visuals!
Through the process of writing, I developed a love of editing. I was the student who would point out errors in exam questions; who would write to anatomy textbook authors to inform them that there were errors on certain pages; who could turn an unreadable report into three graphs for easy viewing, and who blended story-telling and academic writing to captivate readers.
I guess you could say I've always had a knack for details, patterns, and visualization.
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I often dreamt of leading a creative life. I was into photography and thought one day I would become a professional photographer. I thought perhaps I would write books, or be an illustrator, or be the person who creates all the bar charts and graphs in textbooks, or even design board games.
So how did I end up in healthcare?
ACADEMIC JOURNEY
Growing up in the early 2000s and 2010s was a time of opportunity - opportunity that our parents' generation didn't have. OSAP loans were offered at 0% interest and STEM degrees were gaining traction and popularity for their dependability and security for the future. While I dreamt of a creative life, I was socialized quite early on that those careers are competitive and very few actually become successful. Most creative professionals I knew were supporting their endeavors with stable day jobs, mostly in STEM.
So I forgot about it and began thinking about my second love - health. Having seen a number of family members experience illness and injury, it was a great second option - lucrative, dependable, safe, and meaningful. I considered dermatology, orthodontics, nursing, and medicine, but landed on physiotherapy, which felt like the perfect fit. It had flexibility, diversity, potential for creativity, and was a reliable STEM pathway. I wanted to help people live the lives they deserved, and physiotherapy allowed me to do that. I began my journey with a physiotherapist assistant college diploma, after which time I worked for nearly 5 years in private practice while completing my Bachelor of Health Science. In 2020 the pandemic hit, and I got accepted to physio school.
Off I went, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed to heal my community.
HEALTH COMMUNICATION CHALLENGES
The Missing Puzzle Piece
During my time as a physiotherapy assistant, it was common for people to misunderstand and misinterpret information given to them. People were exposed to an abundance of information from their healthcare providers and the internet, and often faced challenges making health-related decisions. It often resulted in people doing what their friend/spouse/sibling did that worked, because it was easier than sifting through and digesting information on their own.
I don't blame them.
During my master of science in physiotherapy, I spent time in private clinics, hospitals, and rehab centres. I worked with people from all walks of life and learned how to communicate to meet the needs of each unique individual who gave me the honour of helping them. I took courses on motivational interviewing, learned about effective communication strategies, and felt prepared to head back into the world.
I quickly realized that even the workshops and courses I took, and the mentorship I received was not always enough to communicate effectively with some individuals and populations. Most of the education I received did not address underlying health literacy issues and were based on the assumption that the people we treat have above average reading, writing, and comprehension skill levels, and are based on verbal methods of communication - teach back, motivational interviewing, and metaphors.
Overwhelmed with the overwhelm on my patients' and colleagues' faces, I tapped back into my roots of identifying patterns, writing, illustrating, and story telling. I started making infographics to summarize common areas of confusion, creating charts and graphs to illustrate risks and benefits of treatment approaches, and using more succinct verbal and written dialogue. They started to get it. Even better than them 'getting it', my patients began to attend sessions more regularly, asked more meaningful questions, and became more involved in their care as a whole. I started to share my work with others and began to wonder how widespread this challenge was.