Nursing and care with patients who are deaf in the hospital

Abstract

Objective: to describe the difficulties faced by nurses in assisting and communicating with deaf patients at hospitals and to show improvement strategies for communication. Method: A survey of electronic data was performed on the Virtual Health Library (BVS) - BIREME and on the Scientific Electronic Library Online - Scielo. The research was carried out from the keywords obtained through DECs (subject descriptors in BIREME health sciences): Deafness, Communication, Assistance, Nursing, Health Unit, from 2013 to 2018. Results: With the articles found, it was possible to analyze that the majority of nurses do not have the capacity to offer quality assistance to deaf patients due to the low level of knowledge of Brazilian Sign Language - Libras. It was noticed that a great part of the learning stimulus may come from college, but many of the professionals seek to train themselves in order to offer better assistance to their deaf patients. Conclusion: Health services are still deficient due to the lack of knowledge of nurses about the Brazilian Sign Language - Libras, low stimulus during college and lack of qualifications. Only a few professionals are able to provide an integral and high-quality service to deaf patients.