ASHA Learning Pass

This course presents a study aimed to determine the views of hospital staff, including speech-language pathologists, on the impact of COVID-19 visitor restrictions on patients or staff. An online survey included 24 hospital staff on stroke wards (including 7 SLPs) and four follow-up interviews analyzed for content themes. Participants reported several negative impacts of visitor restrictions on patients with stroke, particularly upon patients’ social interaction, mental health and mood, safety, and rehabilitation progress. Although patients demonstrated distress and loneliness, staff lacked the time and resources to address this, impacting patient well-being and health care decisions. This course presents and discusses the findings of the descriptive and content analysis with implications for stroke rehabilitation.

This course is a recorded session from the 2022 ASHA Convention Virtual Library (session 5501V).

Related Courses

See more sessions from the 2022 ASHA Convention.

Learning Outcomes
You will be able to:

• Explain the roles of visitors on stroke wards and the impact of COVID-19 visitor restrictions on stroke rehabilitation
• Describe the views of hospital staff on ways the visitor restrictions impacted care quality and safety for patients with stroke
• Discuss ways that SLPs could be instrumental in improving patient care quality and safety during COVID-19 visitor restrictions

Presenter Information

Tanya Ramadan (presenting author) is a new graduate of the Master of Speech Pathology at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS); now a Certified Practising Speech Pathologist. Tanya worked as a sole clinician in Western New South Wales LHD servicing clients across the life span with swallowing and communication concerns and now works as part of the stroke, aged care, and rehabilitation team at Blacktown Hospital (Western Sydney LHD).

Financial Disclosures:

• None

Nonfinancial Disclosures:

• None

Bronwyn Hemsley is a speech pathologist in Australia, and Head of Speech Pathology at the University of Technology Sydney.

Financial Disclosures:

• Employed full time at the University of Technology Sydney

Nonfinancial Disclosures:

• None

Rebecca Sullivan (nonpresenting author) is a Certified Practicing Speech Pathologist at Eastern Health and current PhD Scholar in the Graduate School of Health, University of Technology Sydney. She has over 15 years experience working with people with acquired communication and swallowing difficulties as a result of neurological injury, aging, or disease processes. Rebecca’s PhD is focusing on falls in hospital in patients with communication disability following stroke.

Financial Disclosures:

• None

Nonfinancial Disclosures:

• None

Assessment Type

Self-assessment—Think about what you learned and report on the Completion Form how you will use your new knowledge.

To earn continuing education credit, you must complete the learning assessment by the end date below.

Program History and CE Information

Content origination date: November 2022
End date: October 20, 2028

This course is offered for 0.05 ASHA CEUs (Intermediate level, Professional area).