Julie Benbenishty, Seema Biswas
(1. Medical Center, Hadassah Hebrew University, Israel; 2. Department of Surgery, Ziv Medical Center, Safed, Israel)

 

 

Abstract: It takes years to develop clinical competence in critical care and trauma surgery. We learn, relearn and are tested every day. How do we develop our communication skills and competence in cross-cultural communication, though? This, too is through immersion and daily practice. Here, though, we learn from our patients and their families perhaps more than our own backgrounds and formal training. The case studies in this paper provide insight into the many and varied wavelengths at which intensive care unit, ICU, staff must communicate in order to effectively deliver care and earn the trust and cooperation of their patients at their most vulnerable. Dealing with illness and death is difficult in any environment but in Trauma and the ICU illness may come as a surprise and a shock, patients conditions change minute-by-minute and anxious families hang on every word we say, hoping that they heard good news, trying often not hear the bad news. In this account, we describe some of the special considerations in communication in the ICU and how to communicate at the wavelength of the patient and their family in testing, uneasy but urgent circumstances.

 

 

Key words: cultural competence, communication, intensive care unit, critical care, trauma, surgery