10.23641/asha.9990962.v1 Richard Hurtig Richard Hurtig Rebecca Alper Rebecca Alper Karen Bryant Karen Bryant Krista Davidson Krista Davidson Chelsea Bilskemper Chelsea Bilskemper Improving patient–provider communication (Hurtig et al., 2019) ASHA journals 2019 hospital hospitalized patients patients communication negative communication positive communication nurse call system pain physical disability disability disabilities chronic disability speech-language pathologist Augmentative and Alternative Communication strategies evaluaton experimental design impact effective communication acute care setting communication barriers perceptions help assistance Organisational, Interpersonal and Intercultural Communication 2019-11-01 15:03:53 Media https://asha.figshare.com/articles/media/Improving_patient_provider_communication_Hurtig_et_al_2019_/9990962 <div><b>Purpose:</b> Many hospitalized patients experience barriers</div><div>to effective patient–provider communication that can</div><div>negatively impact their care. These barriers include difficulty</div><div>physically accessing the nurse call system, communicating</div><div>about pain and other needs, or both. For many patients,</div><div>these barriers are a result of their admitting condition and</div><div>not of an underlying chronic disability. Speech-language</div><div>pathologists have begun to address patients’ short-term</div><div>communication needs with an array of augmentative and</div><div>alternative communication (AAC) strategies.</div><div><b>Method: </b>This study used a between-groups experimental</div><div>design to evaluate the impact of providing patients</div><div>with AAC systems so that they could summon help and</div><div>communicate with their nurses. The study examined</div><div>patients’ and nurses’ perceptions of the patients’ ability to</div><div>summon help and effectively communicate with caregivers.</div><div><b>Results: </b>Patients who could summon their nurses and</div><div>effectively communicate—with or without AAC—had</div><div>significantly more favorable perceptions than those who</div><div>could not.</div><div><b>Conclusions: </b>This study suggests that AAC can be</div><div>successfully used in acute care settings to help patients</div><div>overcome access and communication barriers. Working</div><div>with other members of the health care team is essential</div><div>to building a “culture of communication” in acute care</div><div>settings.</div><div><div><b><br></b></div><div><b>Supplemental Material S1.</b> Noddle communication device.</div><div><br></div><div>Hurtig, R. R., Alper, R., Bryant, K., Davidson, K., & Bilskemper, C. (2019). Improving patient safety and<br>patient–provider communication. <i>Perspectives of the ASHA Special Interest Groups. </i>Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1044/2019_PERS-SIG12-2019-0021</div></div>