Communication between the nutritionist and the deaf patient

Abstract

Social inclusion in the care of people with special needs is a necessary factor for a quality service and understanding the relationship between the deaf patient and the health professional is essential. The present study aimed to evaluate the quality of communication between the professional nutritionist and the patient with deafness, through a descriptive cross-sectional quali-quantitative study, carried out in three hospitals in the city of São Luís – MA, with 40 people with deafness and 20 nutritionists . Semi-structured questionnaires were used and the data collected were tabulated in the Microsoft Excel program. It was seen that 55.6% of nutritionists have already had contact with a deaf patient in the workplace, the majority (22.2%) declared to attend through an interpreter, the minority (5.6%) through the Portuguese language and none through LIBRAS. Nutritionists (83.3%) admitted that they were not able to serve people with deafness, while people with deafness, all have already received nutritional care and the majority (33.3%) through the written Portuguese language, gestures and mimics, the minority (13.3%) through the written Portuguese language and none who knew LIBRAS. With that, it was possible to observe the difficulty of nutritionists in communicating with people with deafness, due to communicative failure, due to the lack of knowledge in LIBRAS.