palliative-care-2018-posters-abstracts

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Journal of Palliative Care & Medicine | ISSN: 2165-7386 | Volume 8

August 27-28, 2018 | Boston, USA

International Conference on

Palliative Care, Medicine and Hospice Nursing

Communication needs of palliative patients with communication barriers

Noura Y AlSalloum, Balaji P Duraisamy

and

Sami A AlShammary

King Fahad Medical City, Saudi Arabia

Objective:

To explore the communication needs of cancer patients with barriers to communication, while under palliative care

especially towards the last phase of life.

Methods:

We use a reflective learning process in the context of an incident that happened in the palliative care unit in King

Fahad medical city, Riyadh.

Case:

50-year-old male with locally advanced squamous cell carcinoma of the skin of the face involving the lip, invading and

destroying the maxilla and nose, had difficulty in talking. He had the history of hearing loss, unrelated to cancer but aggravating

his communication barrier. Worsening the communication gap was the language barrier where most of the healthcare staff

were non –Arabic speaking and the patient could barely write in English. He was using a list of needs written on paper in

Arabic and English. The list was not comprehensive and needed to be frequently updated and the paper required replacements.

Reflection:

We did a literature search to look for documented needs of cancer patients who could not talk. We added and

updated the list of needs, printed it in both English and Arabic on a large A3 paper and laminated it to prevent damage. The

patient could now use this locally modified Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) method to communicate

his needs to the health caregiver.

Conclusions:

Palliative patients with communication barriers need AAC methods to effectively communicate their care needs.

We recommend further studies to standardize the items and the language used in the list of palliative care needs to make it

culturally relevant for use in the Arab population.

J Palliat Care Med 2018, Volume 8

DOI: 10.4172/2165-7386-C3-021