Article: The Language of Recovery: How Effective Communication of Information Is Crucial to Restructuring Post-Stroke Life

by Sharon Anderson and Nancy J. Marlett

Background: Providing appropriate and effective information to people with stroke and their families has been identified as a key component to successful practice. Researchers continue to focus on “lack of information” as being the lack of specific technical medical information rather than the communication of practical knowledge and how people use that knowledge to restructure life after stroke. To meet patients’ expectations and achieve better outcomes in stroke, professionals need access to communication theory, research, and training.

I come to this article as the wife of a stroke survivor, the mother of two children, a veteran medical professional, a founder of a website for families dealing with stroke, and a student of communication as the key to identity. After my husband lost the use of the right side of his body and could not speak, he was transferred immediately by ambulance to the hospital. In the emergency department, I was shown the CT scan and was told he had had a nonhemorrhagic stroke. John was admitted into a general medical ward in the hospital under the care of an internal medicine specialist. Two days later, the  medical resident came into the room and told me, “The neurologist has just been here, we have done another CT scan and he can talk to you now.” I followed him into the corridor, where the neurologist did the entire consultation while dinner trays were being carried to and from rooms by nurses, families were arriving to see their loved ones, nurses scurried to finish their work toward the end of their shift, and numerous curious onlookers listened to the conversation about John’s condition. The neurologist very quickly went over information from the CT scan on the brain damage, his prognosis, and his negative prognostications for rehabilitation. I was screaming inside, “This is not communication!” This was my first point of contact with a specialist in stroke care.

See the full article Topics in Stroke Rehabilitation: Grand Rounds - The Language of Recovery: How Effective Communication of Information Is Crucial to Restructuring Post-Stroke Life.