Prioritising patient communication to support equitable access to healthcare

While an artificial airway (breathing tube) provides vital breathing assistance, these patients experience profound difficulty communicating due to the presence of the tube in their airway. This results in inequitable access to healthcare and an inability to engage in healthcare decision-making. There are a range of communication interventions available, but currently there is no comprehensive systematic approach to enabling patients to communicate. This project aims to quantify the extent of this unmet need, identify the barriers and facilitators to a health-service wide targeted communication strategy and implement this. The expected impact is that patient communication will be prioritised, care will be patient-driven and patients will be partners in their healthcare.

Individually, I look forward to learning more about how health system-wide processes, structures and behaviours can be examined and modified in order to improve health-related outcomes, and then having the opportunity to apply this knowledge directly within this current project and future work. From a health service perspective, I anticipate that having clinicians trained in health service research methods with practical application will enhance innovative care practices and improved patient outcomes in the future.