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To summarise the patient communication status in an intensive care unit (ICU), including methods of communication used and the frequency, degree and nature of communication breakdown.

A multidisciplinary daily ward audit was conducted on ten consecutive weekdays in a 30-bed general ICU of a tertiary Australian hospital. Data included patient demographics, patients' mode of communication and the level of difficulty in communicating. Descriptive statistics and means (standard deviation)/medians (interquartile range) were used to summarise the data.

Over the audit period, data were collected from 87 patients (median age 58 years, interquartile range 43 to 67; 60% males), equivalent to 232 occupied bed days. Patients from non–English-speaking backgrounds accounted for 14% of the cohort, with Mandarin the most common non-English language. Altered cognition …