HS315 Unit 9 Health Communication Piece Example

Reviewed by Elspeth Marlowe, MSN, RN Practices in Public Health Purdue University Global Free custom sample in 24 to 48h

Folded inside the wound kits composite Drayton County hands out at its syringe services van, shelter and river camp, the card in the HS315 Unit 9 health communication piece says one thing: a red, hot, spreading wound needs care today. Purdue Global HS 315 asks BS in Health Science students to write for a real audience at a real moment. The submission shows the card's front, inside and back, with places and hours, a pen test for deciding when redness is spreading, and a Spanish version. A rationale explains each choice using the CDC Clear Communication Index and national skin infection guidance: one action, plain words, no mention of strep, a line about police and no scare headline. Eight readers at the van tested a draft.

CourseHS315 Practices in Public Health
UnitUnit 9
Paper typeHealth communication piece
LengthAbout 700 words, 5 pages double-spaced
FormatAPA 7 student paper
SchoolPurdue University Global
ProgramBS in Health Science
UpdatedOctober 2026

Free sample paper for HS315 Unit 9

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Red, Hot, Spreading, Today: A Unit 9 Health Communication Piece for the Wound Kits Handed Out in Drayton County

[Student Name]

Purdue University Global

HS315: Practices in Public Health

Unit 9 Health Communication Piece

[Instructor Name]

[Date]

The card, the test readers and the county are composite; the communication index, the treatment guideline and the surveillance study cited are real.

What this part is doingDescribing the reader's moment first shows that the piece was designed around the audience, which is the first thing communication rubrics ask about.
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Part 1: The Card

Size: a card that folds to fit inside the kit, about the size of a playing card when folded.

Front, large type: "Red. Hot. Spreading. Get it seen today." Below, a simple drawing of a lower leg with a wound and a shaded area around it, and a pen line marking its edge.

Inside, left panel: "Draw a line around the red with a pen. If the red goes past the line by tomorrow, or you get a fever or chills, go today. Free. No ID needed."

Inside, right panel: "Where to go today: Van: Mon, Wed, Fri, 10 to 3 (Library lot, Mill Street, River Road). Shelter nurse: Tue and Thu, 6 to 9 p.m., Fifth Street. Health center walk-in: weekdays after 1 p.m., ask for the wound slot. Very sick, confused or the leg is turning dark: call 911 or head straight to the ER."

Back: "Change your dressing every day if you can. Wash hands first. The kit has enough for three changes. The nurse does not share your name with the police."

Spanish version, front: "Rojo. Caliente. Se extiende. Que lo revisen hoy." The Spanish card carries the same drawing, times and places and was checked by a bilingual outreach worker.

The card asks for one action, getting the wound seen today, and gives the reader a pen test to decide when that day has come.

What this part is doingThe highlighted sentence names the card's single call to action and the decision tool that supports it, which is the core of the design.
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Part 2: The Choices Behind the Card

Why it goes inside the kit. The people most at risk see few printed materials and keep fewer. A card inside a kit they already value travels with them, which a poster on a shelter wall does not.

Why one action. The CDC Clear Communication Index asks whether a material has one main message and a clear call to action near the top, and materials that score well on it are easier for audiences to use (Baur & Prue, 2014). Earlier drafts listed five things to do. Testing showed readers remembered none of them.

Why the pen test. Readers were unsure what "spreading" meant. Tracing a pen line around the reddened skin is a simple way for a person to see whether a skin infection is growing, and the signs named on the card, spreading redness, fever and a darkening or very painful leg, follow the features of serious skin and soft tissue infection that national guidance treats as reasons for urgent care (Stevens et al., 2014).

Why the plain words. The card says "red," "hot" and "spreading" rather than "cellulitis" or "erythema." It does not use the word strep, because readers associated it with sore throats and did not connect it with a leg wound.

Why the line about police. Several people at the van said they avoid clinics because they fear being reported. The statement is true of the program and was approved by the health officer.

Why a reason is not on the front. Earlier versions led with the risk of a deadly infection. Readers at the van said it sounded like a scare tactic. The rise in serious infections among people experiencing homelessness and people who inject drugs is real (Valenciano et al., 2021), but the card puts the action first and leaves the reason to the nurse.

What Eight Readers Said

The draft was shown to eight people at the van over two days. Six could say what the card wanted them to do without looking at it again. Two asked what "spreading" meant, which led to adding the pen test. One said the times were too small to read in poor light, so they were enlarged. One asked for the card in Spanish, which was already planned. Nobody objected to the drawing. The small number of readers means this was a check for problems, not a measure of effect.

What this part is doingReporting what changed after testing, and the limit of eight readers, shows the design was revised on evidence rather than defended as first drafted.
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References

Baur, C., & Prue, C. (2014). The CDC Clear Communication Index is a new evidence-based tool to prepare and review health information. Health Promotion Practice, 15(5), 629-637. https://doi.org/10.1177/1524839914538969

Stevens, D. L., Bisno, A. L., Chambers, H. F., Dellinger, E. P., Goldstein, E. J. C., Gorbach, S. L., Hirschmann, J. V., Kaplan, S. L., Montoya, J. G., & Wade, J. C. (2014). Practice guidelines for the diagnosis and management of skin and soft tissue infections: 2014 update by the Infectious Diseases Society of America. Clinical Infectious Diseases, 59(2), e10-e52. https://doi.org/10.1093/cid/ciu296

Valenciano, S. J., Onukwube, J., Spiller, M. W., Thomas, A., Como-Sabetti, K., Schaffner, W., Farley, M., Petit, S., Watt, J. P., Spina, N., Harrison, L. H., Alden, N. B., Torres, S., Arvay, M. L., Beall, B., & Van Beneden, C. A. (2021). Invasive group A streptococcal infections among people who inject drugs and people experiencing homelessness in the United States, 2010-2017. Clinical Infectious Diseases, 73(11), e3718-e3726. https://doi.org/10.1093/cid/ciaa787

HS315 Unit 9 instructions, in plain terms

Unit 9 typically asks you to create a health communication product for a specific audience and to explain your choices, often with a short pretest. Submissions usually pair the product itself with a two- to three-page rationale. Instructors look for one main message, a clear action, plain language suited to the audience, and placement where the audience will actually see it. Many sections ask you to score the draft against a published checklist, the CDC Clear Communication Index being the usual one, and to report what testing changed. If the audience includes people who speak another language, a translated version checked by a fluent speaker usually earns credit. Explain what you left out as well as what you included, since restraint is part of the design.

How the HS 315 Unit 9 example is put together

Part one presents the card as it would be printed: a front with four short words and a drawing of a leg, an inside panel with the pen test, an inside panel with sites, hours and emergency signs, and a back with dressing advice and a confidentiality line, plus the Spanish front. The highlighted sentence names the single action and the decision tool. Part two explains the choices one by one: why inside the kit, why one action, why the pen test, why plain words and no mention of strep, why the police line and why the risk statement was moved off the front. A closing section reports what eight readers said and what changed, and notes that so small a test checks for problems rather than effect.

Reading the HS315 Unit 9 grading rubric

Health communication pieces are usually graded on audience fit, clarity of the main message and action, design and placement, quality of the rationale and use of evidence. Audience fit and the main message typically account for the largest share of points, since a well designed card with three competing messages rarely works. The rationale earns credit when every design decision is defended by what the readers need or by published guidance. Placement points go to products that reach the audience at a moment they can act. Evidence includes a recognized checklist or index and any clinical content the message relies on. Reporting a pretest, and what it changed, usually lifts a submission, even with few readers.

HS315 Unit 9 help: mistakes that cost points

A frequent problem is a product that tries to teach everything about a disease, leaving the reader unsure what to do. Another is medical vocabulary the audience does not use, such as cellulitis instead of red and spreading. Some students design for a general public when the prompt names a specific group. Others write a rationale that describes the product again instead of explaining choices. Skipping any test with real readers misses easy credit and often leaves a confusing word in place. If your audience or topic differs, perhaps new parents and car seats or older adults and heat, send the brief and we can help you shape one message and a rationale for it.

Get an HS315 Unit 9 example written to your instructions

A card, a post, a script or a flyer: the format your HS315 section requires shapes everything, so name it along with the reader your Unit 9 piece must reach, and attach the prompt and rubric. A free first custom sample, returned in 24-48h, includes both the piece and a rationale tying each choice to that reader. The paper above is an original model document written by our desk, not a submitted student paper and not an official Purdue University Global document.

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HS315 Unit 9 questions, answered

Where can I find a free HS315 Unit 9 sample paper?

The full Unit 9 health communication piece is on this page: a wound care card for people living outside, with its rationale and pretest.

Why does the card avoid the word strep?

Readers linked strep with sore throats, not leg wounds. Using red, hot and spreading describes what they can see, which is what prompts action.

How many people should pretest a health message?

For a class assignment, five to ten readers from the audience is common. That is enough to catch confusing words, not to measure whether the message changes behavior.

What is the pen test on the card?

The reader draws a line around the red area. If the redness passes the line by the next day, or fever starts, the card tells them to get care that day.

Should the card mention the risk of death?

The example moved the risk statement off the front after readers called it a scare tactic. The action comes first, and the nurse explains the reason in person.