The Communicate Study Partnership

The goal of "The Communicate Study: partnership across the Top End to improve Aboriginal patients' experience and outcomes of healthcare" is to achieve sustainable organisational change to provide excellence in cultural and clinical safety for Aboriginal people utilising NT Health facilities. Aim 1: Transform the culture of healthcare systems to achieve excellence in providing culturally safe care for First Nations peoples \- Develop, implement and evaluate anti-racism training using 'Ask the specialist-Plus'. This comprises moderated discussion and reflection on 'Ask the Specialist' podcast episodes held during in-service and clinical teaching timeslots for healthcare providers Aim 2: Strengthen the tools and strategies required underpinning culturally safe practice 1. Improve demand for Aboriginal interpreters and Aboriginal health practitioners through improved cultural understanding and recognition of patient needs 2. Improve supply of interpreters and Aboriginal health practitioners willing to work in the hospital environment by creating a culturally safe workplace and supporting career pathways 3. Effectiveness strategies tailored to participating sites such as * positioning interpreters at points of need and embedding them in medical and surgical teams * Optimising workflow to facilitate efficiency and availability across hospital departments Aim 3: Evaluate outcomes using comprehensive qualitative and quantitative measures 1. Qualitative enquiry to assess cultural safety from patient perspectives, and understand experiences of Aboriginal and Non-Aboriginal healthcare providers and interpreters 2. Quantitative outcomes including * performance across key indicators: changes in documentation of language; Interpreter bookings made; Interpreter bookings completed; % Aboriginal patients in need getting access to an interpreter * Impact of intervention: proportion of admissions with and without interpreters ending in self-discharge; unplanned re-admissions and changes in hospital length of stay * economic analysis of the costs and cost benefits of interpreter use to decrease self-discharge and re-admission rates.