Barriers to communication with people with developmental disabilities: A reflexive thematic analysis

Abstract

People with Intellectual Disability and/or autism internationally experience some of the worst health outcomes of any population group. Registered nurses have been identified as having educational deficits in this domain, which include knowledge of adjustments to communication. This study aimed to explore perceived barriers to communication with people with Intellectual Disability and/or autism. A thematic analysis of data from an open‐ended free‐text survey question exploring barriers to communicating in a cross‐sectional survey of 279 Australian registered nurses conducted in 2020 was undertaken. Six interrelated themes were identified. Increased educational content in undergraduate and postgraduate level nursing courses is indicated. The findings identify the benefit of educational design based on the foundation of understanding the diversity in thinking and information processing represented by the forms of neurodiversity in Intellectual Disability and Autism Spectrum Disorder.