Challenges to communication

Abstract

Communication is a continual challenge in the care of patients with life limiting illness at the end of life. Recent political drives aim to improve communication within health and social care and help practitioners to establish what is meant by best practice. Maintaining effective communication is a constant challenge for all health and social care practitioners and organisations, irrespective of their role or practice setting. It is recognised that poor communication leads to a significant number of complaints each year. Patients report examples of good communication which stem from practitioners using an approach that has a holistic process, accurate content – one where perceptual skills of the practitioner are evident. Patients come into contact with a vast number of practitioners in their disease trajectory. Planning care where the patient has impaired verbal communication can be challenging.