Response examples and exemplars

As a person tasked with responding to stories on the Care Opinion Australia platform, how many times have you asked yourself, ‘how can I respond to this without knowing who the patient is?. Or perhaps you thought you’d just dash off a quick paragraph in between crises but the words just wouldn’t flow?

It might even be that the Care Opinion team has reached out to you to suggest your response may benefit from being softened or personalised a little and you're not sure how to start.

It was once the case that we would occasionally suggest sentences to responding staff who were struggling to find the right words. Yet after reviewing this process, it was found that it was better to 'teach a man to fish' as this was much more empowering for the staff we want to support. After all, storytellers want to hear the voices of their service providers, not Care Opinion. Instead, we have done something much better!

We've got a new resource for our responders!

We are pleased to announce that we have compiled a suite of examples of high-quality responses published on the Care Opinion platform.

They are grouped into 7 categories to help you find what you are looking for. Maybe you are responding to a story about a day surgery or maternity patient, or you don't know how to explain why you want the storyteller to contact you.

Perhaps we've approached you about your response and suggested it may benefit from being softened or that there is an opportunity to educate the storyteller (and the public) about a process.

You will also find our stories widget displaying the latest responses that we feel are exemplars of outstanding response content over a range of stories. 

Just keep in mind that these examples are not templates and you do not have permission to copy the content verbatim. Instead, use our 'EAC' approach when using these responses for inspiration.

* Explore the wording, tone and approach other responding staff have taken

* Adapt sentences and paragraphs to suit the story you are responding to

* Connect with the storyteller using compassion, personalisation and active listening. 

Get your hands on our new resource

To access these examples, simply follow 4 simple steps:

1. Login to the platform

2. Navigate your mouse to the top left-hand side of the site

3. Click the word 'Help' located directly under your profile picture

4. Scroll down that page to the link 'Response examples and exemplars' located under the 'Responding to Stories' tile.

We hope these examples inspire you and help you break through writer's block!

Let us know what you think

We are in the feedback business and love hearing from our service providers. If you find this suite of response examples helpful, or if there is a category of responses you'd like us to include in this suite, please do let us know in the comments below or by emailing us at info@careopinion.org.au.