AAC training from the patient and the carer’s perspective Version 1.0
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Training from the patient and the carer’s perspective: The development of a care staff training programme in AAC based on the views of AAC users and carers in a long-term care setting
IRAS ID
244181
Contact name
Mark Jayes
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Manchester Metropolitan University
Duration of Study in the UK
4 years, 4 months, 3 days
Research summary
Research Question: Can a care staff training programme in Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) based on the views of adults with communication difficulties and their care staff in a long-term care setting, be effective at improving communication interactions between these two groups?
For adults with communication difficulties, face-to-face interactions between themselves and care staff is often difficult, with many staff lacking the requisite skills and abilities to effectively communicate with these individuals. This can lead to communication breakdown, poorer quality of care and medical errors. This research aims to train staff to effectively use AAC with their patients. AAC = Augmentative and Alternative Communication - communication aids which can be low technology, such as a letter chart, or high technology, such as a computer which has a voice.
The participants will be care staff (nurses and care assistants) and adults with acquired conditions recruited from a healthcare organisation, the Royal Hospital for Neuro-disability. This qualitative study will consist of interviewing 6 adults who use AAC and inviting 5-8 care staff to be part of a focus group to find out how both of these groups feel about their communication with each other, and their views on methods of training. Following analysis of this data, a training intervention will be developed.
A separate group of 30 care staff will undergo the training. Pre-and post measures of knowledge and satisfaction with using AAC will be taken in the form of surveys. AAC users will again be interviewed for their views on the effectiveness of the training. These results will be fed into a final version of a training programme. The results from this study will help us to deliver more effective and targeted training for care staff, to help them to communicate with adults for whom AAC is their only means of communication.REC name
North West - Preston Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
19/NW/0003
Date of REC Opinion
4 Mar 2019
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion