The patient has the right to know about the examinations and operations where he is coming. This is important in the examinations where radioactive medicine or ionizing radiation is used. Before PET-CT examination the patient gets instructions. It is very important that the patient follows these instructions so that the examinations can be done properly.

The purpose of this project was to plan an informative guide for a patient who is going to attend a PET-CT examination.

I made the guide with the Microsoft PowerPoint Software and PDFCreator. I wrote it on the basis of the instructions used at Oulu University Hospital. The guide was tested by the first year students in the Degree Programme of Radiography and Radiation Therapy. I also received feedback from the isotope department personnel in Oulu University Hospital. The purpose of pre-testing was to test the suitability and intelligibility of the guide for the patients.

In the guide I wrote instructions which are very important for successful examinations. I told how the examination day proceeds. As the radiation exposure is very high, it is important that the patient knows how he can lower it and how the personnel can lower it. I got lot of positive feedback from the students and the isotope personnel.

In the guide the patients will get information about the examination, the preliminary instructions, the radiation exposure and the after-treatment instructions. After knowing these they can make the decisions about their treatment.

One suggestion for further development of the guide would be to translate the guide into Swedish or into English for foreign patients. In that way more people can know about the coming examination.