How the Teach-Back Method helps me in the voiceover industry

The Teach-Back Method helps me in the voiceover industry.

What is the Teach-Back Method?  The teach-back method, as it relates to pharmacy, is a technique that confirms that a patient understands their medications and health information before leaving the pharmacy.  Using their own words, the patient repeats what they heard the pharmacist say.  We, as pharmacists, use plain language, and this is a shame-free activity that reinforces patient education.

What problem does the teach-back method solve?  Some patients walk away from the pharmacy counter confused about their prescriptions.  Pharmacists who use the Teach-Back Method can improve patient comprehension and information retention. 

What does the Teach-Back Method look like, using an example?  You show a patient how to use her Advair Diskus inhaler.  The directions for use are lengthy.  Once you finish, you ask her to tell you how she plans to use the inhaler.  When she explains the directions for using the inhaler back to you, she might forget something.  Sometimes, larger amounts of information lead to less recall or incorrect recall.  We want our patients to manage their medication independently.  The Teach-Back-Method gives pharmacists a chance to reteach or modify teaching if needed before the patient leaves the pharmacy so the patient feels confident.  The Teach-Back Method helps pharmacists confirm a patients’ understanding before they leave the pharmacy.  

Over the last 3 years, I have learned more about performance and recording, editing, and producing audio files than I ever thought I would learn!  I have had one-on-one coaching, participated in webinars, gone to conferences, and more.  There has been a lot to learn, and I am still learning. 

After coaching sessions, I often ask for a couple of minutes to “teach back” what I learned and go over the plan for moving forward.  Two examples I used in this episode were talking to my audiobook editor about Pozotron and coaching with Sean Pratt. 

Using the Teach-Back Method as a pharmacist helped my patients understand their medications and health information.  On the flip side, as a student in the voiceover (VO) industry, I understand techniques and acquire skills faster because of the Teach-Back Method.  

I love using what I know from being a pharmacist to help me with my VO journey!

Mentioned in this episode

Peggy Yen’s article, Use and Effectiveness of the Teach-Back Method in Patient Education and Health Outcomes https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6590951/

Pozotron

Episode 83 of The Pharmacist’s Voice Podcast, Interview with Sean Pratt

Sean Pratt is a nonfiction audiobook narration coach.