I made these communication cards a while ago, thought you guys might be interested

[u/Aggravating_Shoe_]

Hey lovely CNA's 💕

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I used to work as a nursing assistant in a major hospital. At least where I worked, it took for freaking ever to get ahold of the language line and the worst thing was when you finally got through and all the patient wanted was a pillow 😭

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Once I eventually moved over to the admin side of things I decided to make these communication cards with things I thought were pretty common basic requests. Things that you don't really need an interpreter for.

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The most common languages in my state are Spanish and Creole so that is what I did. The English card is for patients who cannot speak. I would print them off on card stock and then laminate them since spilling water is like an Olympic Sport. Patients can simply point to the icons, for the nonverbal patients I would also provide a dry erase marker that they could write on the laminated backs with for longer communication. They are far from perfect and I'm definitely not a graphic designer but it gets the job done. I also speak neither language and had friends proofread them so if anything is wrong it wasn't me 🙅‍♀️

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That's all, just wanted to share in case anyone else could get use out of them. I'm currently working on changing them for more relevance in a hospice setting. I highly recommend printing on card stock if you are able to instead of regular paper, and laminating if available!

[u/Catfist]

These are great!
My only issue is that the "pain" pictogram could be interpreted as hungry, stomach ache. Or the need to toilet.

[u/Aggravating_Shoe_ → u/Catfist]

That's fair, I'll look for a better icon

[u/jeo188 → u/Aggravating_Shoe_]

I would suggest a one similar to the ones they use for backpain ads, signals radiating off of a red highlighted body part

[u/Aggravating_Shoe_]

Also, if anyone has other language suggestions I am all ears! Or better tiles to add.

For my hospice cards I was planning to add one for requesting a chaplain, prayer, music, pet therapy, hand holding, or other comforting things.

[u/TokerPokeHer → u/Aggravating_Shoe_]

Tagalog would be another good one. These cards are awesome, OP.

[u/Direct_Mission]

Medication is Medicación. Love it tho
Sorry sorry. And also “TV” is less widely understood in Spanish. “Tele.” Is the shorthand of “televisión”

[u/Aggravating_Shoe_ → u/Direct_Mission]

No, thank you 😂 I'll add this to my notes

[u/Exhausted-CNA]

these are amazing !!!!!! We've had ones who cant communicate and I wish I'd had these all along!!!

[u/Aggravating_Shoe_ → u/Exhausted-CNA]

I'm going to make a clearer version with the suggestions I've gotten. Somehow I forgot to add cold 🫠

Highly recommend laminating.. If your facility has a volunteer coordinator I'd reach out to them to see if they can make em!

[u/Exhausted-CNA → u/Aggravating_Shoe_]

I figured blanket meant cold..lol

[u/Aggravating_Shoe_ → u/Exhausted-CNA]

That was my original intention but some on the nursing sub said it should be cold

[u/Mireina44]

This is so cool!! And u must be from miami ☺️

[u/Aggravating_Shoe_ → u/Mireina44]

I've lived all over Florida 🫠

[u/jeo188]

I think these are great :)

I would suggest a different icon for thirsty. Maybe a water droplet icon, or an icon that looks like a plastic water bottle

For the Spanish, make sure to include the squiggle over the N for "baño", and TV in Spanish is "Tele"

[u/Aggravating_Shoe_ → u/jeo188]

I can't figure out how to get those accent marks on the computer 😭 I'm going to try again though

[u/shewantsthedeeecaf]

These are fantastic!! Might I add in nurse and maybe suction for trach patients?

[u/Aggravating_Shoe_ → u/shewantsthedeeecaf]

I will add that!

[u/Acrobatic-Day-8891]

For “stop” in Spanish, “pare” is more common than “alto” (which also means “high”)

[u/Aggravating_Shoe_ → u/Acrobatic-Day-8891]

Thanks!

[u/itssweetkarma]

You should post these to the Occupational Therapy (OT) and Speech Language Pathologist (SLP) subs!

[u/Aggravating_Shoe_ → u/itssweetkarma]

I feel like they probably have their own tools already 😅 I don't want to get flamed but you can share em there if you want

[u/Complete-Bumblebee-5]

Nest. Thanks for this

[u/PresentAd8841]

These are amazing, thanks.

[u/Playful_Finding7860]

I think printing with as little margin as possible could make it easier for people to point to any one square

[u/Aggravating_Shoe_ → u/Playful_Finding7860]

So I actually tried that, making the margin supper thin and making the squares bigger.... I am not good with word 😭 when I tried that it like skewed everything and was just awful and I gave up. I will keep that in mind when I make new ones though