Communicative participation in goal‐setting meetings for patients with aphasia after stroke. A study using patients’ and healthcare professionals’ self‐ratings
Authors: Söderhielm Kajsa , Eriksson Karin , Möller Marika 
Published: October 2022

Purpose

Communicative participation poses a challenge in meetings between healthcare professionals (HCPs) and people with aphasia (PwA). How communication is affected by aphasia in group meetings, where several healthcare professionals participate together with the patient, is largely unexplored. The aim of this study was to investigate self‐rated communicative participation during goal‐setting meetings among PwA compared to patients without aphasia and to investigate whether communicative participation among PwA was associated with self‐rated knowledge about aphasia among HCPs. A further aim was to investigate if there was a difference in the use of communication strategies among HCPs in the respective situations.

Methods

Nine PwA and nine control patients without aphasia rated their experience of communication during a goal‐setting meeting. Thirty‐eight HCPs rated their knowledge about aphasia and communication, and their use of communication strategies during goal‐setting meetings.

Results

The PwA reported being listened to by the HCPs as well as being able to comprehend the meeting. PwA with more severe language impairment did not report a lower level of communicative participation compared to PwA with milder impairment. Half of the patients from both groups indicated some difficulty asking questions during the meeting. Patients’ ratings of communication were not correlated to HCPs’ knowledge of communication strategies. There was a significant difference in self‐rated use of communication strategies among HCPs for the two conditions, although the individual variation was large.

Conclusion

Results from both PwA and controls imply that patients may need more support to be able to ask questions in meetings with HCPs. Although self‐ratings increase the ecological validity of the study of participation, further studies could benefit from using video observations in combination with self‐reported experience, since awareness might influence results.

What this paper ads

What is already known on this subject

Aphasia is an acquired language disorder that affects patient–provider communication. In stroke rehabilitation, person‐centred goal setting is a key component. If healthcare professionals (HCPs) are not able to use adequate communication strategies, a lack of accessible communication can become a barrier to person‐centredness. There are evidence‐based communication strategies which can be used to overcome this barrier.

What this paper adds to existing knowledge

This study aimed to investigate communicative participation during goal‐setting meetings from the perspective of patients with aphasia and HCPs. To our knowledge, this is the first study where persons with aphasia are asked to rate communicative participation in goal‐setting meetings. To broaden the perspective on communication and goal setting, ratings of patients with aphasia are compared to ratings by patients with stroke but no aphasia. The results of this study indicate that there is room for improvement regarding communication during goal‐setting meetings. However, asking direct questions on communicative participation to persons with severe aphasia may not be feasible.

What are the potential or actual clinical implications of this work?

The results of this study imply that both patients with and without aphasia may need more support to be able to express themselves during goal‐setting meetings. There also seems to be a need for further education on aphasia and communication strategies among rehabilitation professionals.