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Bioethics Education for Communication with Deaf Patients: First Croatian Experiences

Physicians and nurses in Croatia are not trained for the communication with deaf patients. From the bioethical point of view it is a question that should be scientifically studied, and special emphasis should be put on the patient's/examinee's informed consent and bioethical principle of autonomy as its framework, as well as the principles of privacy and confidentiality. In the process of bioethics education in Croatia, which has already been verified scientifically, the basis of communication with the Deaf has been introduced in the „ Rijeka model“ of bioethics education. Bioethics is by its nature a young field that combines knowledge from many different fields through its multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary and dialogical approaches to moral issues. Therefore, it was sensible that the “ Rijeka model” of bioethics education should become a framework within which to offer education for the communication with the Deaf. The “ Rijeka model” of bioethics education offers a core course of bioethics to each type of student educated at the Medical School, University of Rijeka (medicine, dentistry, nursing, healthcare management, sanitary engineering, laboratory engineering, radiology, and physiotherapy). This requires using different pedagogical approaches to ethical issues according to the particularities of each profession. This model is unique among all four Croatian medical schools. By introducing the education of physicians, nurses, and other health care professionals for communication with their deaf patients, this model significantly evolved. Namely, it has become adapted not only for different types of health care providers, but it takes into account different needs of different groups of patients. The first steps have already been done through the elective subject “ How to Communicate (with the Deaf Patients)?” introduced into the curriculum of medicine and nursing students in the academic year 2002/2003. Similar activities continued for the healthcare management students in the academic year 2006/2007. A continuous medical education course “ Education of Health Care Professionals for Communication with Deaf Patients” was also organized in the academic year 2006/2007. The objective of this curriculum innovation was to introduce European trends of teaching sign language into Croatian health care system ; to teach doctors and nurses the basics of the communication with the Deaf ; to improve the „ Rijeka model“ of bioethics education introducing new contents, methods and models in clinical bioethics related to the communication with the Deaf. We followed the hypothesis of clinical bioethics education enriched with the elements of communication with the Deaf being in accordance with the requests of European Council Recommendation 1598 (2003) related to the protection of sign language in the countries members. In accordance with the implementation of „ Bologna process“ in the Croatian educational system and the Croatian tendency to enter the European „ society of knowledge“ , the introduction of the basics of communication with the Deaf in the curriculum of the medicine, nursing, and health care management students is an important step towards this aim. Such an education should result with the perception of the Deaf as an ethnic minority, which contributes to the development of the civil society, but it also increases the quality level of Croatian health care system. This can be achieved exactly through the introduction of basic elements of communicology, basic elements of sign language, and recognition and respect of bioethical standards in meeting the needs of deaf patients. The acquisition of basic elements of communication with the Deaf is important not only in curing the deaf patients, but in the research as well, because of numerous biomedical researches which include deaf patients. In this oral presentation the first practical experiences with the innovation of the “ Rijeka model” of bioethics education shall be presented, with special emphasis on the feed-back information the authors gathered from the students, and the members of the Rijeka’ s Deaf community, who had the opportunity to witness the first implementation of new skills into the everyday clinical practice of the Rijeka’ s healthcare professionals educated through the “ Rijeka model” .

bioethics education; deaf; European Council Recommendation 1598 (2003)

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