Communicating with patients.

On my Neuro placement I treated many patients that were unable to verbally communicate with. There was one patient in particular who had GB and a cuffed trachy in situ who I found very complicated to treat. He also had no movment in his uper limbs and only dorsiflexion and plantarflexion of his ankles in his lower limbs.

He had a past medical history of depression, and had been in hospital for several months with no real improvment in his symptoms. During my four week placement I only observed a small improvement with his sitting balance. This was very frustrating to the patient and it became apparent to me that his mood was starting to became more and more depressed.

Due to his trachy and inability to communicate verbally it was very difficult to ask him how he was feeling. I did not want to make him feel worse or misread the situation and say something inappropriate. I discussed this with my supervisor and asked her for some advice regarding the situation.

She informed me on how she had previously been handling the situation with the same patient. She encouraged me to be cheerful, talk about what I have been doing and ask him basic yes and no questions which would be easy for him to reply to. I followed her advice an it helped dramatically. I offered up information about myself and found some common interests with the patient which we could communicate about non-verbally. The communication techniques I learnt from my supervisor were very valuable when dealing with my patient.