Uso de dispositivo móvel para comunicação alternativa de pacientes em cuidados intensivos

In certain situations, oral communication can be compromised and manual gestures may not be clearly interpreted, a reality experienced by many patients admitted to the intensive care unit who are unable to communicate via speech. These patients often have limited means of communication and resort to eye blinking, flash cards or writing. The use of a mobile assistive device was evaluated as an alternative form of communication between intensive care patients and health professionals. Thirty-two patients unable to communicate orally participated in the study. The statistical analysis included Mann-Whitney, Kruskal-Wallis and chi-square tests. A significance level of 0.05 was adopted. Significant differences were found in the relationship between the non-oral communication condition of the patient and the patient’s gender (p < 0.001) and between the initial interaction screens and gender (p = 0.033). The results show that the communication provided by mobile assistive devices can facilitate the communication of both basic and complex messages between the patient and the health professional.