Improving effective communication with acquired language-impaired patients: A pilot study of a clinical interprofessional experience for future healthcare providers

Faculty/Staff Leader Summary

It is well documented that people with aphasia struggle to communicate with health care providers, which contributes to poorer health outcomes and quality of life. Healthcare providers should be equipped with communication skills needed to effectively serve patients with neurogenic language impairments. Unfortunately, few healthcare programs provide specialized training of communication strategies for future healthcare providers. To address this need, we created an interprofessional (IPE) clinical training activity within the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders’ Summer Aphasia Program.

In the existing six-week program, Speech-Language Pathology (SLP) students provide individual and group therapy to individuals from the community with post-stroke and primary progressive aphasia. One month before the first two-week session, 37 SLP and 7 IPE students from Occupational Therapy, Physician Assistant, and Pharmacy participated in online and interactive in-person didactic training. Topics included characteristics of aphasia, facilitative communication techniques, and each profession’s scope of practice for patients with acquired brain injury and neurodegenerative disease. During the aphasia program, interprofessional students engaged in two days of observation and clinical interactions with program participants facilitated by SLP graduate clinicians.

A variety of assessment and behavioral measures were used to evaluate outcomes resulting from the IPE clinical training activity. The research design included a comparison group of 5 randomly assigned IPE learners that did not participate in didactic or clinical opportunities. Findings indicated statistically significant between-group differences in knowledge and use of communication strategies for individuals with aphasia and within-group differences in understanding other professions’ roles which were attributable to the training experiences.

IPEC Competency Domain(s)
Communication
Roles & Responsibilities

IPEC Sub-Competencies Targeted
RR4: Differentiate each team member’s role, scope of practice, and responsibility in promoting health outcomes.
C2: Use communication tools, techniques, and technologies to enhance team function, well-being, and health outcomes.