Instructions are important documents in the real world. In healthcare environments, they provide essential information to coworkers and patients, structuring the way people do their jobs and take care of their family members. Having correct and detailed instructions can help ensure everyone does the same thing for the same task, providing consistency. They can also show people performing tasks how to do so safely and effectively.  

Unfortunately, instructions are often the worst-written documents we encounter: they miss steps, fail to orient the reader to important tools or concepts, assume too much or explain too much, and generally confuse a reader who is already unfamiliar with the task.  

Writing instructions is harder than it seems, but more important than we assume.  

For this assignment, you will produce a set of written and visual instructions for a healthcare-related task that you are highly familiar and comfortable with.  

For readers are nonspecialists. For example, your instructions could be designed for a novice nurse who hasn’t yet developed a competence in the task at hand, or for a family member who must help care for a patient at home. You decide what nonspecialist audience to address.   

Your instructions must include both text and visuals, and it should allow nonspecialist users to move successfully through your selected step-by-step process.  

 Your final instructions should:  

• Be 250 – 500 words  
• Include 5-7 individual steps   

• Include 5-7 accompanying images, created yourself or sourced online.  
• You should not be copying your steps from a source—these should be your own steps to complete a task.  
• Utilize clear document design that makes effective use of headings, bullets, lists, body text, and image placement.  

 Some tips:  

• Choose a healthcare-related task you are very familiar with so that you can write your instructions in your own words. 

• Pick something manageable that can be completed in 5-7 steps but complex enough to require all the steps. 
• Your instructions can be designed either as an infographic or a document. Search “free infographic maker” online to find a number of possible tools.