Writing CE articles for your agencyt

[croaker260]

SO, I frequently write in house CE articles for my department ona variety of topics as part of our in house CE program. Additionally, other FO' sget tasked to do the same as well. One of oyur FTO's came to me an d asked "how do you do that". Well, I spilled the beans, I had a generic outline that saves me time in my writing.....He asked me to write it down for him, I did. He said "you should post this somewhere!"

So, here is, I am sure the more seasoned instructors wont need it, but for the newer ones it may come in handy. Please feel free to add your own suggestions or tips/tricks too!

Here is the “cheat sheet” for your CE construction

1- Pick a title. It must be catchy and kewl, or it must be simple. An outstanding title is both. When in doubt, go Simple. The easy way out is “(insert subject here): An Overview for emergency Services Personnel”

2- Find an attention grabbing quote related (however thinly) to the subject matter, preferably by someone from antiquity or literary might. Failing both of those, use a movie. Anything by Quinton Terratino or Mr. Spock

3- Use a 5-8 part outline. I have outlined those parts here.

I- Introduction: 1 to thee paragraphs (max) to grap their attention. End with a few brief sentences explaining WHY the reader should waste his time reading your article when a copy of last years Maxim is on the toilet, or Medics Gone Wild is on the TV.

II- Incidence and epidemiology: Any of the kewl yet boring statistics on how often it occurs, put them here. Does it occur more commonly in males or females? What are the risk factors?

III- Basic Path physiology or mechanism of the subject matter: How does it kill, injure or maim? What sets this apart from other illness or injuries? What is exciting about this drug. This is the most important section. This is where you dazzle them, or baffle them, or bore them.

IV- Key teaching point one Find a key teaching point, something that they must take away with them, something that will make them glad they read the article, and discuss it heavily here. Remember that above is the BASIC pathophysiology of the subject matter, here is the kewl stuff. The meat, the stuff that makes you say “I am MEDIC! HERE ME ROAR!” (or squeek).

V- Key Teaching Point two same as above.

VI- Key Teaching Point three same as above. NOTE: In my opinion three or four Key points are about all you can really cover well before their eyes start to cross, at least in a CE article. If you think you need to discuss more, you can. Just do it well and short.

VII- Treatment and care. This is where you will discuss how all the geeky, neat, yet ultimately useless material (in the eyes of the reader) you mentioned above really isn’t useless at all, and explain how what you discussed above will impact their every day care of the patient. KEY RULE: No matter how routine the subject matter, give them something NEW, something they haven’t seen before. Some little tidbit to chew on.

VIII- Legal pitfalls, Documentation points, or other cautions. While the teaching points get the student hyped up on the subject matter, tools he can use, and generally motivated…this is the part that injects a dose of sobering reality, this is the part that keeps them OUT of trouble. So …write this part well.

IX- Summary Bring it all to an end. Think psychology…we all like closure in our relationships. Bring closure to your article.

X- References!!!! (Wikipedia doesn’t really count…)

Hope this helps....

[Richard B the EMT]

An Instructor/Coordinator I have had years ago uses the addition of "NICE to know/NEED to know", background stuff versus what is going to be on the test.

I use as example, the "Annie" death mask which is now the CPR mannequin's face (nice to know), versus the 30/2 compression to breath ratio (need to know).