My non-verbal communication skills made a big difference

摘要

Towards the end of the second year of my child nursing degree, I worked on a general paediatric ward. One day a teenage girl was admitted with high blood glucose levels.The patient, whom I will call Aisha, came from a big family with lots of siblings. This was the first time she had been away from them, and the first time she had been admitted to hospital.Aisha had total loss of hearing and English was not her first language. She was diagnosed with type I diabetes and was seen by the diabetes nurse specialist who started education and training, using a pre-booked sign language interpreter for one hour.