When we first embarked on this 10 week project we had quite grand ideas on how we were going to achieve the aims of our projects, which included improving the experiences of deaf patients in healthcare settings by getting a better understanding of the difficulties they faced and learning basic BSL alongside the course of the project. I have used the Driscoll model to reflect on how our project has changed over the course of the project.
What?
Our initial ideas for the project included visiting a hearing clinic and talking to patients to get a better understanding of what difficulties they face and ask about their experiences. A main aim of the project was to learn Level 1 and 2 of BSL and then revisit the clinic towards the end of the project and interact with deaf patients to practice the sign language we had learnt. Alongside this we wanted to teach each other a section of medical sign language, initially splitting into body systems (cardiovascular, respiratory ect). We were also going to blog each week and think of ways we could potentially integrate sign language into medical teaching.
So What?
Within the first couple of weeks we quickly realized that learning the whole of Level 1 BSL would be quite a challenge given the time limits of the project, we adapted our initial aim of learning all of Level 1 and 2 to learning the most relevant sections first, such as time, directions and introductions. We also adapted our medical sign language teaching to be taught in sections of history taking starting with presenting complain through to systemic enquiry. We felt that this would be more useful as it would allow us to be able to take a history from a patient, generally the first thing you do during an appointment. We also quickly realized it would be very difficult talking to deaf patients in a hearing clinic due to the need of an interpreter and finding a time, a clinic or charity that would be willing to have us visit. This was initially disappointing as everyone had been excited to use the sign language we are learning. We decided to create a questionnaire to email to some of the charities instead, which allowed us to get some insight into patients’ experiences. A meeting with John, who is deaf-blind and works for the charity DeafBlind Scotland, provided new inspiration to both continue our learning and find new ways of improving patients’ experiences in healthcare.
Now What?
Following the meeting with John, along with the results of the questionnaire we decided to create a quality improvement poster, which we hope to display in the medical school and hospital, in which we will include key things to take into account when communicating with a deaf person and some of the results of this project. We also have decided to contact the medical school and address, not the lack of sign language teaching we initially were going to focus on, but instead the lack of deaf awareness among medical students. We are also going to add videos to our blog to display what we have learnt and so they can be used as a tool for future medical students looking to learn sign language and improve their deaf awareness, making our project more sustainable. Despite our methods of attaining information changing throughout the course of the project, our initial aims of learning BSL and learning about and therefore suggesting improvements for deaf patients experience in healthcare have largely remained the same.
Sign Of The Times 