Visual Communication Board for Communication Compromised Patients

Background Human speech is the wonderful gift given to human being by God for communicating their ideas, needs and feelings. But an inability to speak, no matter temporary can be catastrophic for the patients in tertiary care. Some patients in tertiary care units may be communication compromised due to various reasons. A quasi experimental study was conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of visual communication board on satisfaction regarding communication needs of communication compromised patients in selected hospitals of Delhi. Objectives Objectives of the study were 1) To assess and compare the level of satisfaction regarding communication needs of communication compromised patients in both experimental and control group after administration of visual communication board in experimental group and traditional methods in control group 2) To establish association between the level of satisfaction regarding communication needs of communication compromised patients in both experimental and control group with selected variables after administration of visual communication board in experimental group and traditional methods in control group. Methodology The quasi experimental research with posttest only control group design was used. Sample comprised of total 60 communication compromised patients (30 experimental and 30 control group) selected by purposive sampling. Patient data record sheet and Satisfaction scale were tools used for data collection. Results In experimental group maximum of study subjects i.e. 13(43.33%) were satisfied followed by 9(30%) study subjects completely satisfied and only 2(6.67%) were unsatisfied. In control group maximum of study subjects i.e. 11 (36.67%) were completely unsatisfied followed by 10(33.33%) study subjects unsatisfied and only 2(6.67%) were satisfied. The level of satisfaction perceived by study subjects in experimental group was significantly higher than the control group. Conclusion The visual communication board improved the level of satisfaction of communication compromised patients & thus can be used to cater the communication needs of communication compromised patients.