Assessing Contentment and Distress

617 Words3 Pages
Verbal communication is a very important part of being able to communicate with others. Verbal communication, in my opinion, is the most accurate and efficient way to communicate with someone. Before this class, I never really thought about how there are many different types of ways to communicate with others. One of these types of communication is nonverbal communication. Nonverbal communication consists of any type of communication that is not spoken out loud. This article, Assessing Contentment and Distress, talks about how nonverbal communication is key in understanding patients who can no longer communicate verbally. Since it is very difficult for people to understand and be able to perceive what these signs really mean, the medical field has come up with a tool called the Disability Distress Assessment Tool, also known as the DisDAT. This tool can recognize nonverbal expressions and can tell when these are signs of the patient’s distress. The author of the article explains her experience with the DisDAT and its use on a patient she had with a learning disorder and the final stages of dementia. She says that some patients cannot communicate verbally, which is the best way to communicate, and so this tool helps with the determining the nonverbal signs of what the patient might be experiencing. The tool does not explain why the patient is in distress, just that they are showing signs of distress. It is then up to the professionals to decide what the causes are of their patient’s condition and what to do about their patient. The downside to this tool is that it’s developers aren’t sure how reliable the machine is in accurately interpreting patient’s signs. One problem with this is the possibility of inaccurately diagnosing a patient and not treating them properly. Another issue is that the machine leaves the results of the test open for interpretation, so it’s up
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