What To Do

Rewrite the broadly stated goals completed in Step 3.4 as measurable communication objectives. These objectives should explicitly state what each audience segment should know, feel or do.

Note that each of the four intervention options presented in Step 2.6 involve some sort of communication plan. Creating a communication plan is essential, whether it is directed toward a community, health consumer, politician, health service provider, or other audience.

• Ask what changes should occur as a result of your communication efforts (What do you want people to know, feel, do, or comply with?)
  
• Write these changes or expected deliverables in the form of objectives. Objectives should be attainable, measurable, and time specific. You may have more than one objective for your communication effort.

How To Do It

Rewrite goals into objectives.

Goals are general statements of intent and state the "grand reason" for engaging in your public health effort.

Objectives are more specific than the goals created in Step 3.4. They specify intermediate accomplishments or benchmarks that represent progress toward the goal.

Communication objectives should state what the audience will know, feel, and do and should answer these questions:

• Who specifically will be affected?
  
• What will change?
• How much change will occur?
  
• Where will the change occur?
  
• When will the change occur?

SMART Objectives

Objectives are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Time-phased (SMART).

• Objectives should be specific.

State what you want to happen as a result of your intervention in exact terms.

• Specific Objective: To increase the number of health and nutrition messages in the school curricula by 30% by 2003.
• Non-Specific Objective: To talk about health in schools.

• Objectives should be measurable.

You should ensure that you have ways to track progress toward your goal. If you want to change attitudes, can you administer surveys to explore attitudes?

If you wish to increase the number of fruit servings employees select from the office cafeteria, is it feasible to count fruit selections?

Measurable objectives are often used to create evaluation standards that measure success.

• Measurable Objective: To increase the prevalence of iodized salt to 90% in the country by 2003.
• Non-Measurable Objective: To create a change in the sales of iodized salt.

• Objectives should be achievable and realistic.

Be realistic about what your program can do. You may increase the number of times nurses wash their hands each day. However, setting the reduction of hospital infections as a communication objective may not be feasible. Factors other than communication may need to be addressed.

• Objectives should be time specific.

Your communication effort is not likely to be effective indefinitely. Identify your end point and points along the way at which you will measure progress. You may also want to measure change at some predetermined point after your program ends to learn whether it has had any lasting effects.

Consider the following Communication Objective Worksheet to create effective objectives:

Using the worksheet as a guide, you should be able to rewrite the communication goals completed in Step 3.4 into communication objectives.

The communication objectives completed in this step will be used to write a communication brief in the next step.