Setting, Design, and Method: The research was conducted at a 500-bed, magnet-designated, university teaching hospital in northern California. In collaboration with a speech pathologist, we developed a tool and video to assess patients with aphasia. Nurses and families are given a handout to guide assessments and provide helpful communication hints.

A Likert scale was used to evaluate the effectiveness of the tool. It was given to 50 nurses and 100 family members two weeks after they received training and had been using the tool.

Concept Target:

A tool using video, power point and an aphasia worksheet was designed to improve nurse, family, and patient communication. The tool walked the nurse through an aphasia assessment, first determining if the patient was fluent or non-fluent, then continuing to evaluate simple and more complex auditory processing followed by yes/no questions and word repetition testing. The training session provided video examples of patients with different types of aphasia shown during a speech pathologist’s assessment.

Findings:

Nurses reported the tool improved their assessment and communication skills.

Conclusions:

Knowledge from speech pathology can be integrated into nursing practice with use of the UCD Nursing Aphasia Assessment Tool.

Implications:

Nurses need practical ways to understand and treat aphasic patients. This became evident when we conducted a literature review. There was an absence of nursing research providing guidance-to-practice related to aphasia. The evidence-based tool we have developed is an effective way to improve quality of patient care and communication.

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