“Ward talk”: Nurses’ interaction with people with and without aphasia in the very early period poststroke

Abstract

Background: Nursing staff are the most frequent communication partners, after family members, for people in hospital poststroke, and they play an essential role in the multidisciplinary team. Recent research has found that patients are more cognitively and socially active when wards provide an “enriched environment” as compared to standard care. Therefore, language enrichment on acute wards is now being considered as a possible way to discourage “learned nonuse” of language in people with aphasia. Aims: This study involved an exploration of the nature of nurses’ interactions with three patients on an acute stroke ward, two with aphasia and one without, in order to understand the nature of th..