So many materials, so little time: a checklist to select printed patient education materials for clinical practice.

Clinicians value printed patient education materials for use in their busy practices because of their accessibility, convenience, and low cost. These materials can help broach important and sensitive topics, reinforce medical information verbally discussed with the patient in a cost-effective manner, and save time typically required to explain clinical topics. If a material can provide necessary information succinctly, then clinician–patient communication can be focused on other unmet patient education needs. Most clinicians, including midwives and other women’s health care providers, receive a number of printed health education materials offered for use in their practices. Just reviewing these materials can be time-consuming for clinicians, let alone selecting the materials that are most appropriate for their patients. Although others have researched how clinicians organize, display, and use printed patient education materials, few resources exist to help clinicians systematically judge the materials’ quality for use in their specific practice. This article provides a checklist that helps clinicians assess the suitability of printed patient education materials within the context of their own practice. This article does not address the assessment of nonprint media products for patient education, such as audio or video resources, which have different considerations.