ABSTRACT

The objective of this Bachelor thesis was to produce a patient guide to the Southern Central Radiology department at the Oulu University Hospital (OUH/OYS). Patients can get acquainted to the guide at the patient lobby where they have access to it. The guide helps patients receive information about the department and imaging.

The practical aim of this guide, was to make it visually clear, interesting, functional and to tell patients understandably about the radiological examinations and ionizing radiation. In the theoretical part of the thesis we discussed what kind of information patients need, the significance of information and patients’ right to get information.

The operational objective was to facilitate patients’ preparation for radiological examinations. The guide will help patients receive the most essential and comprehensive overview of the examinations which are undertaken in the Southern Central Radiology department. Our aim was also that patients will find out how things work in the radiology department, and know how to act accordingly. The guide also facilitates radiographers’ and patients’ cooperation. The aim is that the patients receive the best possible experience from the department visit.

We pretested the patient guide for functioning and quality at the Southern Central Radiology department with patients who visited computed tomography examinations. We also pretested the patient guide with the departments’ radiographers. Based on the feedback from the patients they were mostly satisfied and they thought that the patient guide was interesting, clear and understandable.

A further research topic suggestion for the guide would be to investigate how it works in practice, whether the patients use the guide and it has been useful for the staff. It would be interesting to find out how it could be developed further. The patient guide could be changed for example into a PowerPoint-show for the patient lobby television.