Perception of Ghanaian healthcare students towards the learning of sign language as course

Abstract

Communication remains among the top barriers to healthcare for deaf people. One of the reasons is healthcare professionals lack the competence to communicate health information in sign language. Part of the measures to alleviate this challenge was the introduction of sign language into the curriculum of health students. The perceptions of healthcare students on this initiative were assessed in this study. The study used cross-sectional online survey to collect data from 666 randomly sampled health students in Ghana. Participants were recruited through social media platforms. Descriptive statistics, Chi-square was used to analyze the differences between categorical variables at the rate of 95% confidence intervals (p = 0.05), and binary logistic was performed to ascertain predictors of health student’s perception about hospital should provide professional interpreters than students learning GhSL. The study found that about 9 in 10 of all health students support the introduction of GHSL as a course. Student nurses perceive more benefits of learning GHSL to the deaf community than all health students. Logistic regression revealed that students’ midwives were 2.183 times significantly more likely to support the view that hospitals should provide professional interpreters instead of health students learning GHSL as compared with students who study Nursing (AOR: 2.183, CI: 1.104–4.316, p = 0.025). To sustain the interest of students in the learning of GhSL. Appropriate teaching and learning materials should be made available. Likewise, competent instructors should be recruited in the teaching of GhSL. This can be done through a collaborative effort between stakeholders including KNUST, NMC, and the ministry of health.

Keywords:

• Sign Language
• Ghanaian
• Healthcare
• Students
• Perception

Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thank all study participants for their time.

Author contributions

Prince Peprah offered scientific guidance on the study’s design and data analysis, while Richard Adade participated in data gathering and analysis and wrote the first copy of the publication. The final manuscript was reviewed and approved by all writers.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

The authors solely funded this study.

Notes on contributors

Richard Adade

Richard Adade is an assistant lecturer. Richard’s research interest focuses on the education of students with sensory impairments (deaf and blind), teaching sign language and sign language interpretation. He has produced many teaching and learning materials for sign language learning.

Obed Appau

Obed Appua is an assistant lecturer and PhD student. Obed is interested in the education of the deaf and has co-authored some publications in that area. He is very experienced in the teaching of sign language as a course at the tertiary level.

Prince Peprah

Prince Peprah is a Ph.D. student with research interests in health services, systems, and primary care.

Portia Marfo Serwaa

Portia Serwaa is an MPhil student. Portia’s research interests focus on sign language, healthcare access for deaf people, and sign language interpretation.

Daniel Fobi

Daniel Fobi is a lecturer and graduate program coordinator at the Department of Special Education, University of Education, Winneba (UEW). His research interests focus mostly on deaf education, and he has led publications in the same area.

Rebecca Tawiah

Rebecca Tawiah is an MPhil holder. Rebecca’s research interests include sign language, adolescents’ mental health, disability and employment, and rehabilitation services for children with disabilities.