By using this site, you agree to the Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.
Accept
Health Works CollectiveHealth Works CollectiveHealth Works Collective
  • Health
    • Mental Health
  • Policy and Law
    • Global Healthcare
    • Medical Ethics
  • Medical Innovations
  • News
  • Wellness
  • Tech
Search
© 2023 HealthWorks Collective. All Rights Reserved.
Reading: How to Communicate with Patients When Words Won’t Work
Share
Notification Show More
Font ResizerAa
Health Works CollectiveHealth Works Collective
Font ResizerAa
Search
Follow US
  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy
© 2023 HealthWorks Collective. All Rights Reserved.
Health Works Collective > Policy & Law > Medical Education > How to Communicate with Patients When Words Won’t Work
Medical EducationNewsPublic HealthSpecialties

How to Communicate with Patients When Words Won’t Work

joan justice
joan justice
Share
5 Min Read
SHARE

(Originally published on Patient Empowerment Network)

What if you were a patient with a serious illness, alone in a hospital and you couldn’t communicate verbally with the medical staff?

The feeling of loneliness and isolation on top of the emotional burden of being hospitalized with a serious illness would certainly be overwhelming.

There are any number of reasons why patients cannot verbally communicate with the staff, including:

More Read

Learn About Anxious Eating And How To Stop It In 5 Steps
Healthcare Technology Showcase and Learning Center in Washington DC
Are Emergency Rooms Admitting Too Many Patients?
Autism and Language Impairment Share a Genetic Link, But Not All with ASD Have Trouble Speaking
Has China Done a Good Job Handling H7N9?

(Originally published on Patient Empowerment Network)

What if you were a patient with a serious illness, alone in a hospital and you couldn’t communicate verbally with the medical staff?

The feeling of loneliness and isolation on top of the emotional burden of being hospitalized with a serious illness would certainly be overwhelming.

There are any number of reasons why patients cannot verbally communicate with the staff, including:

  • Language barrier
  • Tracheostomy
  • Severe fatigue
  • Head and neck surgery
  • Stroke
  • Mechanical ventilation
  • Non-verbal

MD Anderson has created and developed Visual Communications Charts to be used with patients who cannot communicate verbally for whatever reason. These charts are comprehensive yet extremely simple to use and understand. Charts currently available are:

  • Visual Pain Communication Chart
  • Visual In-Patient Needs Chart
  • Visual Symptom Communication Chart
  • Visual Fatigue Communication Chart
  • Visual Psychiatric Communication Chart
  • Visual Vital Signs Chart
  • Visual Urine and Stool Chart

Charts are available in several languages. Below are 2 examples: A Fatigue Scale Chart and a Pain Communication Chart. You can see that the Pain Communication Chart describes pain (with Sensory Pain Descriptors), locates pain on the body, rates the intensity (Faces Scale), and the frequency (Alternatives).

Fatigue Scale
Visual Pain Chart (English)

The Visual Communications Charts were first used in MD Anderson’s International Assessment Center by the nurses assessing non-English speaking patients. When I asked Maria Maltez and Esther Garcia from the Language Assistance Department at MD Anderson how the nurses liked the charts, they answered that the nurses find the charts a great help and use them all the time.

Maltez and Garcia went on to comment about use of the Visual Communications Charts in other areas of the MD Anderson Cancer Center,

“We did a pilot with the charts earlier this year. We interviewed 20 patients total (English and Spanish speaking). We wanted to have some feedback from patients to see if this was a helpful tool and to see if we needed to make any changes before we finalized the charts. Overall, the results were very positive. We went to the impatient floors and some of the clinics. We interviewed patients that had had head and neck surgery. These patients told us that they found the charts very helpful in communicating basic ideas without having to write anything down. They expressed how difficult it was to be in pain, fatigued and scared without being able to communicate. They agreed that a visual aid like the one we presented would help alleviate some of those feelings.”

Another testimonial from Maltez and Garcia talks about a patient named Gloria (not her real name),

“Gloria had a tracheostomy. She first developed a severe inflammation in her throat and for months she could not utter a single word. She had to write everything down and was very tired, with a severe loss of energy. She was very depressed.

I provided her with the Visual Communications Charts and she was able to communicate most of her daily needs through them and also answer staff and doctors’ questions about her pain, energy level and other issues. When she could finally speak, she told me that being able to communicate simple ideas through the charts greatly helped her get out of her depression”

To be given a ways of communication when you had none must be an overwhelmingly positive feeling. No one likes to feel alone and isolated. These visual charts are simple and easy to use and offer so much hope and support to patients. This helpful tool should definitely be made available to all patients who have difficulty in verbal communication, for whatever reason.

TAGGED:cancerdoctor/patient communicationempowered patients
Share This Article
Facebook Copy Link Print
Share

Stay Connected

1.5kFollowersLike
4.5kFollowersFollow
2.8kFollowersPin
136kSubscribersSubscribe

Latest News

a woman walking on the hallway
6 Easy Healthcare Ways to Sit Less and Move More Every Day
Health
September 9, 2025
Clinical Expertise
Healthcare at a Crossroads: Why Leadership Matters More Than Ever
Global Healthcare
September 9, 2025
travel nurse in north carolina
Balancing Speed and Scope: Choosing the Nursing Degree That Fits Your Goals
Nursing
September 1, 2025
intimacy
How to Keep Intimacy Comfortable as You Age
Relationship and Lifestyle Senior Care
September 1, 2025

You Might also Like

ESPN’s Stuart Scott: Kickboxing Cancer

March 19, 2014
Medicare eligility and coverage
News

Demystifying Medicare: Understanding Coverage and Eligibility

April 4, 2023
brain research
Medical DevicesMedical InnovationsNewsTechnology

Medtronic Advances Deep Space Exploration – Of the Human Brain

September 1, 2013
Tim Dawson, chief architect at Vital Images
Medical DevicesMedical InnovationsRadiologyTechnology

Interview with Tim Dawson, Chief Architect at Vital Images

November 8, 2013
Subscribe
Subscribe to our newsletter to get our newest articles instantly!
Follow US
© 2008-2025 HealthWorks Collective. All Rights Reserved.
  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy
Welcome Back!

Sign in to your account

Username or Email Address
Password

Lost your password?