Communication between rehabilitation staff and people with traumatic brain injury: A systematic review

ABSTRACT

This systematic review aimed to synthesize barriers and facilitators in communicative interactions between staff and people with traumatic brain injury (TBI) in the rehabilitation context. Searches captured published evidence up to November 2022 in MEDLINE, Embase, SCOPUS, Web of Science, CINAHL, AMED, and PsycINFO. Eligible studies reported on the communicative interaction between rehabilitation staff and adults with TBI. In total, 31 studies were included in the review; including quantitative, qualitative, and mixed-methods designs. Quality assessment was carried out using standard checklists. Quantitative studies and quantitative components of mixed-method studies were synthesized descriptively according to reported communication barriers and facilitators. Qualitative studies and qualitative components of mixed-method studies were analysed through an inductive thematic meta-synthesis; generating six main themes with four subthemes. Themes were categorized as barriers or facilitators to communicative interaction. Findings demonstrated that cognitive-communication disorders of people with TBI challenge the communicative interaction between rehabilitation staff and people with TBI. However, the extent to which these disorders create a communicative barrier is closely related to staff’s communicative approach. While staff holding a collaborative and acknowledging approach and using supportive strategies may facilitate successful communicative interactions, staff using the opposite approach may exacerbate communication barriers.

KEYWORDS:

• Traumatic brain injury
• Cognitive-communication
• Rehabilitation staff
• Communicative interaction
• Systematic review

Acknowledgements

We thank Associate Professor at University of Copenhagen, Holger Juul, for discussions of design, statistics, and dissemination. We also thank Ragnheiður Mósesdóttir, librarian at University of Copenhagen, for support regarding Covidence and database access. Finally, we thank Professor Deborah Parker from the University of Technology Sydney, for discussions regarding the JBI Tools.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

There is no publicly available dataset from this research.

Additional information

Funding

The study was funded by Department of Nordic Studies and Linguistics, University of Copenhagen.