Purpose: Many hospitalized patients experience barriersto effective patient–provider communication that cannegatively impact their care. These barriers include difficultyphysically accessing the nurse call system, communicatingabout pain and other needs, or both. For many patients,these barriers are a result of their admitting condition andnot of an underlying chronic disability. Speech-languagepathologists have begun to address patients’ short-termcommunication needs with an array of augmentative andalternative communication (AAC) strategies.Method: This study used a between-groups experimentaldesign to evaluate the impact of providing patientswith AAC systems so that they could summon help andcommunicate with their nurses. The study examinedpatients’ and nurses’ perceptions of the patients’ ability tosummon help and effectively communicate with caregivers.Results: Patients who could summon their nurses andeffectively communicate—with or without AAC—hadsignificantly more favorable perceptions than those whocould not.Conclusions: This study suggests that AAC can besuccessfully used in acute care settings to help patientsovercome access and communication barriers. Workingwith other members of the health care team is essentialto building a “culture of communication” in acute caresettings.
Supplemental Material S1. Noddle communication device.
Hurtig, R. R., Alper, R., Bryant, K., Davidson, K., & Bilskemper, C. (2019). Improving patient safety and
patient–provider communication. Perspectives of the ASHA Special Interest Groups. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1044/2019_PERS-SIG12-2019-0021
Supplemental Material S1. Noddle communication device.
Hurtig, R. R., Alper, R., Bryant, K., Davidson, K., & Bilskemper, C. (2019). Improving patient safety and
patient–provider communication. Perspectives of the ASHA Special Interest Groups. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1044/2019_PERS-SIG12-2019-0021