Creating moments of patient-centred communication in the emergency department

Daily focus in the Emergency Department: Creating moments of patient-centred communication Background:  Effective communication plays a vital role in delivery of quality care, especially in the Emergency Department because of the complex and challenging environment. The patient should be the centre of all communication in the ED. The desired outcomes of patient-centred communication are improved patient satisfaction, patient involvement and positive patient outcomes.  Healthcare professionals need to understand patients’ needs, values and preferences, provide patients with information to participate in their own healthcare, and build trusting patient-healthcare professional relationships. Aim:  Explore patient-centred communication in the Emergency Department as a daily focus. Research Method: Involving patients to participate in their own healthcare is growing. Therefore an experience-based co-design was used. The design provided an opportunity to raise awareness about and understand current communication practices in the emergency department. A total of 18 unstructured observation sessions, 15 semi-structured interviews with healthcare professionals and 13 narrative-based film interviews with patients were done. A co-design event was held, during which patients (2), doctors (6) and nurses (12) collaboratively analysed the data, identified key touch points and then planned strategies to move towards patient-centred communication in the emergency department. Rigour was addressed by involving the healthcare professionals in the observation sessions, analysing the data collaboratively, ensuring transparency in the analysis process and reaching consensus with patients and healthcare professionals on the key touch points identified. Results: Effective communication should be a daily focus to constantly remind healthcare professionals to promote and enhance moments of patient-centred communication experienced by patients in the ED. The ideal ED patient-centred communication is not realistic because of the chaotic and challenging environment. Patients with life-threatening conditions and injuries will always get priority above patient-centred communication in the ED. The healthcare professionals working in the ED will always strive to be professional and make patient-centred communication a daily focus. The ultimate ED would strive to create moments of patient-centred communication to shape the experience of the patient and healthcare professional.