I'll be back in a minute: an initiative to improve nurses' communication with acute stroke patients

Abstract

Effective communication between health professionals and patients is fundamental to achieving high-quality care. In addition to improving patient satisfaction and subjective wellbeing, effective nurse–patient communication is understood to directly influence patients' health outcomes. Following a stroke, good communication can be particularly challenging. Nurses and care staff require strong communication skills to be able to adapt flexibly to patients' needs and abilities. Given the resource-strapped nature of the NHS and high staff turnover, traditional, lengthy training in communication is neither economical nor practical. This report reviews an innovative, brief communication training session provided to 31 care staff working with patients who had recently had a stroke. This training comprised a short education session in the clinical environment (a hospital ward) and solution-focused reflection. Overall findings indicate that the training was acceptable to nurses and care staff and it improved their confidence in communicating with patients. Limitations include a lack of behavioural measurement of changes in such nurse–patient communications.

The role of the healthcare assistant on a stroke unit: A scoping review

“…24,25 Of the fourteen research articles, five had a mixed-methods design 15,26–29 and nine reported qualitative data only. 7,10,30–36…”

“…Eight articles highlighted potential barriers healthcare assistants faced when attempting to fulfil their job roles. 10,15,29–31,33,34,36 These barriers were identified by both healthcare assistants themselves, and other multidisciplinary team members. 15,29,30 The most common barriers highlighted were: not having enough time to do their jobs; lack of trained staff; lack of training available; and staffing shortages.…”

“…Lack of availability of staff, and staffing shortages, were also seen as barriers. 10,30,34,36 Staff had concerns over the lack of consistency of team members, and how staffing shortages led to knowledgeable and skilled staff not having the time to fulfil their job roles properly. This prevented them from setting good examples for others and all nursing staff ended up only ‘doing the basics’ and this philosophy became the norm.…”

Paid worker and unfamiliar partner communication training: A scoping review

“…Finally, two programs were a combination of online and face-to-face training methods (Heard, et al, 2017;Hui-Chen et al, 2016). Speech-language pathologists were all part of the delivery of broader CPT programs, except for one delivered by a clinical psychologist (Williams & Gurr, 2016) and two where the trainer was not specified (Bryan et al, 2002;Shaw & May, 2001). A speech-language pathologist also participated in the delivery of one community-based training program (Goldblum & Alant, 2009), while the trainer was not specified in the other community program (Togher et al, 2004).…”

“…Exceptions included studies that utilised qualitative analysis of interviews, focus groups or learning logs (a directed logbook)(Behn et al,2015;Cameron et al, 2018;Simmons-Mackie et al, 2007;van Rijssen et al. 2018;Williams & Gurr, 2016) Confidence. Measures about confidence were included in 38.6% (n=27) of studies.Increased confidence or competence in interacting with a PWCD was found in 92.6% (n=24) of trainees.…”