1,679
Views
16
CrossRef citations to date
0
Altmetric
Research Papers

The confidence and knowledge of health practitioners when interacting with people with aphasia in a hospital setting

, , ORCID Icon, ORCID Icon, , & show all
Pages 1288-1293 | Received 29 May 2016, Accepted 09 Feb 2017, Published online: 13 Mar 2017
 

Abstract

Purpose: The aim of the study was to describe and compare the confidence and knowledge of health professionals (HPs) with and without specialized speech-language training for communicating with people with aphasia (PWA) in a metropolitan hospital setting.

Methods: Ninety HPs from multidisciplinary teams completed a customized survey to identify their demographic information, knowledge of aphasia, current use of supported conversation strategies and overall communication confidence when interacting with PWA using a 100 mm visual analogue scale (VAS) to rate open-ended questions. Conventional descriptive statistics were used to examine the demographic information. Descriptive statistics and the Mann–Whitney U test were used to analyse VAS confidence rating data. The responses to the open-ended survey questions were grouped into four previously identified key categories.

Results: The HPs consisted of 22 (24.4%) participants who were speech-language pathologists and 68 (75.6%) participants from other disciplines (non-speech-language pathology HPs, non-SLP HPs). The non-SLP HPs reported significantly lower confidence levels (U = 159.0, p < 0.001, two-tailed) and identified fewer strategies for communicating effectively with PWA than the trained speech-language pathologists. The non-SLP HPs identified a median of two strategies identified [interquartile range (IQR) 1–3] in contrast to the speech-language pathologists who identified a median of eight strategies (IQR 7–12).

Conclusion: These findings suggest that HPs, particularly those without specialized communication education, are likely to benefit from formal training to enhance their confidence, skills and ability to successfully communicate with PWA in their work environment. This may in turn increase the involvement of PWA in their health care decisions.

    Implications for Rehabilitation

  • Interventions to remediate health professional’s (particularly non-speech-language pathology health professionals) lower levels of confidence and ability to communicate with PWA may ultimately help ensure equal access for PWA.

  • Promote informed collaborative decision-making, and foster patient-centred care within the health care setting.

Acknowledgements

A.C. is supported by a Princess Alexandra Hospital Research Scheme Postgraduate Scholarship. S.M.M. is supported by a National Health and Medical Research Council (of Australia) Fellowship.

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest. This work was supported by a Queensland Health, Allied Health Clinical Education and Training Unit, Health Practitioner Research Scheme grant.

Additional information

Funding

A.C. is supported by a Princess Alexandra Hospital Research Scheme Postgraduate Scholarship. S.M.M. is supported by a National Health and Medical Research Council (of Australia) Fellowship. This work was supported by a Queensland Health, Allied Health Clinical Education and Training Unit, Health Practitioner Research Scheme grant.

Log in via your institution

Log in to Taylor & Francis Online

PDF download + Online access

  • 48 hours access to article PDF & online version
  • Article PDF can be downloaded
  • Article PDF can be printed
USD 65.00 Add to cart

Issue Purchase

  • 30 days online access to complete issue
  • Article PDFs can be downloaded
  • Article PDFs can be printed
USD 374.00 Add to cart

* Local tax will be added as applicable

Related Research

People also read lists articles that other readers of this article have read.

Recommended articles lists articles that we recommend and is powered by our AI driven recommendation engine.

Cited by lists all citing articles based on Crossref citations.
Articles with the Crossref icon will open in a new tab.