Department of Community Medicine, Information and Health Decision Sciences (MEDCIDS), Faculty of Medicine, University of Porto, Porto, Portugal.
Centre for Innovative Care and Health Technology (ciTechcare), Polytechnic of Leiria, Leiria, Portugal.
BMC Palliat Care. 2024 Feb 21;23(1):49. doi: 10.1186/s12904-024-01382-x.
Communication disorders are a challenge that many patients in palliative care (PC) may encounter. This intervention area is emerging for the speech-language therapist (SLT), the professional who works in preventing, assessing, diagnosing, and treating human communication disorders. This study aims to identify and classify the communication strategies considered most important by SLTs for use in PC and evaluate whether there are any differences in perception regarding the importance of strategies between SLTs with and without PC experience.
This cross-sectional quantitative study was conducted using a survey, which employed a well-structured, self-completion questionnaire previously validated by a panel of experts with over six years of PC experience.
The strategies rated as most important within each group were the following: (i) adjust the patient's position and minimise environmental noise; (ii) establish eye contact and adjust the pace of speech; (iii) adjust the language level and raise one topic at a time; (iv) use images of the patient's interests and their personal objects; (v) use orality and multimodal form; (vi) use simplified language and structured pauses; and (vii) use tables with images and books with pictures.
Verbal and non-verbal strategies were rated as highly important. There was no evidence of differences in perception in terms of importance between the SLTs with or without experience in PC, but more studies are needed to support this aspect. The patient's communication ability is one of the cornerstones of PC quality. Through their actions, speech-language professionals could empower the patient with strategies so that they can autonomously and self-determinedly express their experiences and most significant needs.
沟通障碍是许多姑息治疗（PC）患者可能遇到的挑战。这个干预领域正在为言语治疗师（SLT）开拓，SLT 是预防、评估、诊断和治疗人类沟通障碍的专业人员。本研究旨在确定和分类 SLT 认为在 PC 中最重要的沟通策略，并评估具有和不具有 PC 经验的 SLT 对策略重要性的看法是否存在差异。
这是一项横断面定量研究，采用问卷调查，问卷采用了经过一组具有六年以上 PC 经验的专家验证的结构化、自我完成的问卷。
在每个组中被评为最重要的策略如下：（i）调整患者的姿势并尽量减少环境噪音；（ii）建立眼神接触并调整讲话速度；（iii）调整语言水平并一次提出一个话题；（iv）使用患者感兴趣的图像和他们的个人物品；（v）使用口语和多模态形式；（vi）使用简化语言和结构化停顿；（vii）使用带有图像的表格和带有图片的书籍。
言语和非言语策略被评为高度重要。具有和不具有 PC 经验的 SLT 之间在重要性方面的看法没有差异，但需要更多的研究来支持这一方面。患者的沟通能力是 PC 质量的基石之一。通过他们的行动，言语治疗专业人员可以为患者提供策略，使他们能够自主和自主地表达他们的经历和最重要的需求。
