Health Editing

Who is this course suitable for?

This course aims to give an introduction to the specialism of health editing. A general base of editing skills is presumed – those without this knowledge should look at the CIEP’s proofreading and copyediting programmes before beginning this course. Overall, this course is suitable for people who are already competent editors and who wish to expand their skillset into this particular field.

This course is also available as a section of the Medical Editing course.

Course description

This course will help you to:

• become familiar with the sources of information on health policy, guidance, legislation, statistics, conditions and treatments
• learn about editing materials aimed at patients and service users, health and care professionals, employers and related bodies such as training providers and regulators
• learn how to avoid language that perpetuates inequality in health care
• understand the language that is appropriate for different readers of healthcare materials.

The course provides exercises for you to put into practice the lessons learnt through the study notes. There are model answers, commentary on all the exercises and a section on useful resources to help you in this field.

What you should know after the course

After working through this course, you should understand what is involved in editing typical materials for patients, professional guidance for those who work in health care, and reports, policies and plans for healthcare organisations. You should be aware of and be capable of addressing issues relating to health literacy and health inequality. You should also be able to handle sensitive information respectfully and appropriately for the context.