Humanising communication between nursing staff and patients with aphasia: potential contributions of the Humanisation Values Framework

ABSTRACT

Background: Research in the lived experience of people with aphasia has provided insight in difficult experiences of discomfort, but also in some cases of great comfort, arising in interactions with healthcare professionals. Feeling isolated, distraught, and disconnected from oneself and one’s own sense of identity are not uncommon in the early period after onset of aphasia, and as such feelings are bound to surface in the interaction with healthcare professionals, they seem to merit attention in the education of healthcare staff about aphasia. Current approaches to communication partner training (CPT) tend to focus on supportive strategies in communication and do not explicitly address more fundamental, existential needs of patients with aphasia. Accordingly, it is relevant to explore ways of enriching such approaches with a deeper knowledge and understanding of general sources of discomfort and comfort to patients with aphasia. Todres, Galvin, and Holloway (2009) describe eight theoretically informed dimensions of humanisation, which constitute a values-based framework for considering what practices can make people feel more (or less) human. Reviewing experiences of people with aphasia in communication with healthcare staff against the eight suggested dimensions of what it means to be human may offer fresh insights into the experiences of patients with aphasia and healthcare professionals and may offer potential implications for communication partner training.

Aims: The purpose of this article is to explore the relevance and applicability of the Humanisation Values Framework to the experiences of patients with aphasia in health care situations and in communicating with healthcare staff. Focusing particularly on nursing staff, it will be considered whether the framework may have particular relevance in exploring the caring relationships and caring conversations between people with aphasia and nurse practitioners.

Main contribution: The Humanisation Values Framework is described and applied to interpret research findings describing the lived experience of communication with healthcare staff from the perspectives of people with aphasia. Implications for nursing and caring for patients with aphasia are discussed in order to suggest ways of humanising communication in care situations. The perspective of nursing staff is considered and implications for CPT for nursing staff are discussed.

Conclusions: Drawing on the Humanisation Values Framework provides insights into the lived experience of aphasia in healthcare interactions and may be useful in empowering healthcare practitioners to attend to subtle, empathetic aspects of caring for patients with aphasia as well as supporting them to facilitate caring communication.

KEYWORDS:

• Aphasia
• communication partner training
• humanising care
• lifeworld
• nursing

Acknowledgement

We acknowledge gratefully the insights from members of the research network on Communication Partner Training.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Danish Council for Independent Research in Humanities under grant number DFF-4180-00046.