Communicating with Residents

The proposal for a Pilot Project on Relating Well to Residents in End-of-Life Care was prepared in response to a desire to improve the quality of communication between staff and residents and between staff and residents’ families and friends in a residential unit for Older Persons in Dublin.

While the issue of poor/insufficient communication between staff and residents in community hospitals predates the arrival of overseas staff, their presence highlights an existing problem and necessitates a culturally sensitive response.  Sixteen different nationalities are represented on the staff and over 80% of Staff Nurses, 50% of Managers and 40% of Care Assistants were born and trained outside Ireland. Staff Nurses and Nurse Managers work in a context where few Irish role models for communication are available to them. This staffing profile is replicated in many other residential units throughout the country.

It is with the objective of improving the quality of communication in the Unit, and thereby increasing residents’ quality of life, that the current proposal for a pilot project was submitted.