COMMUNICATION WITH DEAF PATIENTS - KNOWLEDGE, BELIEFS, AND PRACTICES OF PHYSICIANS

Objective.-To assess physicians' knowledge and beliefs regarding commu nication with deaf people and compare their knowledge and beliefs with their methods of communicating with deaf patients in their practices. Design.-Survey. Setting.-University medical center. Subjects.-Attendi ng physicians in an internal medicine department. Interventions.-Physi cians were surveyed regarding prior contacts with deaf patients and wi th deaf people outside the medical setting, and regarding their knowle dge and beliefs concerning methods of communicating with deaf people. Physicians were asked to estimate the fraction of encounters in which they communicated with deaf patients by lipreading, writing, translati on by a relative or friend, a sign language interpreter, or other meth ods. Results.-Writing was the method used most frequently in communica ting with deaf patients. Although 63% of physicians knew that signing should be the initial method of communicating with deaf patients who s ign, only 22% used sign language interpreters more frequently than oth er methods in their practices. Past contact with deaf people (P=.05), belief that communication by signing was the best means of communicati on (P=.04), and knowledge of the inefficiency of lipreading (P=.04) we re predictors of the use of sign language interpreters for deaf patien ts. Physicians who used sign language interpreters more frequently tha n other methods believed that much more time and effort were involved in caring for deaf than for hearing patients compared with those who u sed interpreters less frequently (P=.08). Conclusion.-Although most ph ysicians believed that use of sign language interpreters was preferabl e, only a minority used them in their practices. Greater recognition o f the advantages of signing over other methods and greater availabilit y of sign language interpreters should read to more effective communic ation between deaf patients and physicians.