Developing a capacity-building intervention for healthcare workers to improve communication skills and awareness of hard of hearing and D/deaf patients: results from a participatory action research study.

Background: Healthcare workers (HCWs) are commonly not prepared to properly communicate with D/deaf and hard of hearing (HoH) patients. The resulting communication challenges reinforce the existing barriers to accessing and benefiting from quality of care in these populations. In response, this study aimed to develop and evaluate a capacity-building intervention for HCWs to raise their awareness of D/deaf and HoH individuals' experiences in healthcare and improve their capacity to communicate with these populations.

Friendship in Later Life: How Friends Are Significant Resources in Older Persons' Communication about Chronic Pain.

Background: This article focuses on how older persons perceive their friends' role in their daily experience of chronic pain. It reports part of the results of a study in which we interviewed 49 participants, aged 75 and older, about the way they communicate about chronic pain within their social network.

Methodology: Using discourse and content analysis, we first examine older persons' definition of friendship, and then identify the various dimensions of friendship that are engaged in the communication about chronic pain.

How should health care providers inform about palliative sedation? A qualitative study with palliative care professionals.

Objective: In Switzerland, palliative sedation consists of using sedatives to relieve terminally ill patients. It is divided into several steps, with one of them consisting of informing patients and relatives about the procedure. In the current recommendations, there is a lack of orientation about how and when this discussion should take place.

Talking about chronic pain in family settings: a glimpse of older persons' everyday realities.

Background: The expression of chronic pain remains a delicate matter for those older persons who suffer from this condition. If many studies highlight the difficulties of putting pain into words, scarce are those that take into account how given social networks can facilitate or prevent its expression. Based on a qualitative study that explores the communication about chronic pain in older persons' social network, this article reports on this key issue of talking about health in later life within family settings and provides clinicians with information about the way older persons with chronic conditions perceive their everyday realities and social relations.

Communication About Chronic Pain in Older Persons' Social Networks: Study Protocol of a Qualitative Approach.

A lack of social relations appears to impact on health and life expectancy among the older persons. The quality and diversity of social relations are correlated with good health and well-being in later life. Chronic pain is a crucial issue in aging population.

Cultural competency and sensitivity in the curriculum for palliative care professionals: a survey in Switzerland.

Background: Cultural and linguistic diversity in patients and their relatives represents a challenge for clinical practice in palliative care around the world. Cross-cultural training for palliative care professionals is still scarce, and research can help determine and support the implementation of appropriate training. In Switzerland, health policies address diversity and equity issues, and there is a need for educational research on cross-cultural training in palliative care.

Developing and Evaluating a Capacity-Building Intervention for Healthcare Providers to Improve Communication Skills and Awareness of Hard of Hearing and D/deaf Populations: Protocol for a Participative Action Research-Based Study.

D/deaf and hard of hearing populations are at higher risk for experiencing physical and mental health problems compared to hearing populations. In addition, they commonly encounter barriers to accessing and benefiting from health services, which largely stem from challenges they face in communicating with healthcare providers. Healthcare providers commonly lack tailored communication skills in caring for D/deaf and hard of hearing populations, which lead to difficulties and dissatisfaction for both staff and D/deaf and hard of hearing communities.

Introducing cross-cultural education in palliative care: focus groups with experts on practical strategies.

Background: The linguistic and cultural diversity found in European societies creates specific challenges to palliative care clinicians. Patients' heterogeneous habits, beliefs and social situations, and in many cases language barriers, add complexity to clinicians' work. Cross-cultural teaching helps palliative care specialists deal with issues that arise from such diversity.

[Asylum, health and discrimination: words matter].

Our medical practice brings us to meet people from all walks of life. Some of our patients experience multiple vulnerabilities and are at greater risk of stigma and discrimination. In the field of asylum, they are often firstly designated by words reflecting their socio-administrative reality.

[Health issues in deaf and hearing-impaired patients : a challenge to take up].

In Switzerland, one person out of a hundred suffers from serious hearing impairment or complete hearing loss, whereas 13 % of the population is hard of hearing. Scientific literature shows that the global health of the hearing-impaired population is also an issue (psychological distress, sexual health, chronic diseases, access to messages of prevention). It is a little-known fact that deaf people form a real community, with a complete and proper system of communication ; they share cultural norms and values.

Exploring barriers to consistent condom use among sub-Saharan African young immigrants in Switzerland.

No study to date has focused on barriers to condom use specifically among young immigrants to Europe from sub-Saharan Africa. Based on a qualitative study in sociology, this paper explores generational differences in barriers to condom use between first-generation immigrants (born in Africa and arrived in Switzerland after age 10) and second-generation immigrants (born in Switzerland to two native parents or arrived in Switzerland before age 10). Results are based on in-depth, semistructured individual interviews conducted with 47 young women and men aged 18 to 25 to understand how individual, relational, and cultural dimensions influence sexual socialization and practices.

Cross-Cultural Communication in Oncology: Challenges and Training Interests.

Purpose/objectives: To survey oncology nurses and oncologists about difficulties in taking care of culturally and linguistically diverse patients and about interests in cross-cultural training.
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Design: Descriptive, cross-sectional.

Hebephilia: A Postmortem Dissection.

In 2008, the concept of hebephilia, which denotes an erotic preference for "pubescent children," was suggested by Blanchard and his team for inclusion in the DSM-5 (Blanchard et al., 2009). Four years later, the APA's Board of Trustees opted for the status quo and rejected that proposal.

Speaking from the Inside: Challenges Faced by Communication Researchers Investigating Disease-Related Issues in a Hospital Setting.

This commentary came from within the framework of integrating the humanities in medicine and from accompanying research on disease-related issues by teams involving clinicians and researchers in medical humanities. The purpose is to reflect on the challenges faced by researchers when conducting emotionally laden research and on how they impact observations and subsequent research findings. This commentary is furthermore a call to action since it promotes the institutionalization of a supportive context for medical humanities researchers who have not been trained to cope with sensitive medical topics in research.

HIV disclosure and nondisclosure among migrant women from sub-Saharan Africa living in Switzerland.

No study to date has focused specifically on the reasons for and against disclosure of HIV-positive status among sub-Saharan migrant women. Thirty HIV-positive women from 11 sub-Saharan countries living in French-speaking Switzerland participated in semi-structured individual interviews. The reasons women reported for disclosure or nondisclosure of their HIV serostatus were classified into three categories: social, medical, and ethical.

Beyond the 'dyad': a qualitative re-evaluation of the changing clinical consultation.

Objective: To identify characteristics of consultations that do not conform to the traditionally understood communication 'dyad', in order to highlight implications for medical education and develop a reflective 'toolkit' for use by medical practitioners and educators in the analysis of consultations.

Design: A series of interdisciplinary research workshops spanning 12 months explored the social impact of globalisation and computerisation on the clinical consultation, focusing specifically on contemporary challenges to the clinician-patient dyad. Researchers presented detailed case studies of consultations, taken from their recent research projects.

The impact of communication skills training in oncology: a linguistic analysis.

This study aimed to investigate the impact of a communication skills training (CST) in oncology on clinicians' linguistic strategies. A verbal communication analysis software (Logiciel d'Analyse de la Communication Verbale) was used to compare simulated patients interviews with oncology clinicians who participated in CST (N=57) (pre/post with a 6-month interval) with a control group of oncology clinicians who did not (N=56) (T1/T2 with a 6-month interval). A significant improvement of linguistic strategies related to biomedical, psychological and social issues was observed.

Dunno if you've any plans for the future: medical student indirect questioning in simulated oncology interviews.

Background: This exploratory study investigated the motives of medical students (N = 63) for using indirect questions of the type I don't know if [you have already heard about chemotherapies], I don't know how [you are], or I don't know what [you do for a living] in simulated patient interviews during a communication skills course.

Methods: I don't know questions (IDK-Qs) were observed during the initial evaluation of students' communication skills; they were systematically identified through video screening and subjected to a qualitative content and discourse analysis considering their context, their content, their intent and their effect on the simulated patients. To evaluate the specificity of medical students' IDK-Qs, the data were compared with a data set of oncologists (N = 31) conducting simulated patient interviews in the context of a Communication Skills Training (CST).

[Sociolinguistics and liaison psychiatry: a particular aspect].

Verbal language is a major tool of medical communication. However, its use can be problematic, namely because the speakers of a given language do not necessarily agree on the meaning of the words they exchange. This phenomenon is usually called linguistic variability.

[The community interpreter: a central role in the puzzle of the intercultural consultation].

As a consequence of growing global migration, physicians in French speaking Switzerland often face communicational difficulties with allophone patients. This paper first discusses advantages and shortcomings of various ways of dealing with this kind of situations. The indication of using professional interpreters will be addressed, as well as some specific therapeutic, linguistic and relational features of triadic consultations involving a physician, a patient and an interpreter.

[Qualitative study of a social and health network's expectations for community treatment of severe mental health problems].

Unlabelled: Treatment of severe mental illness in the community is gaining interest under ethical, clinical and economical pressure, which has led to mental health reform and deinstitutionalisation. However, this can lead to conflicts between all the parties involved in the community. Several countries have initiated extensive efforts to coordinate health services to enhance quality of care without increasing costs.

The interpreter's role with immigrant patients: contrasted points of view.

Immigration in Western societies sometimes leads to medical consultations without any shared language between physician and patient. The intervention of a third party is required in such cases. This paper details a study of the role of such a third party.