Brasilian Sign Language (Libras) on medical education: possibility of improvement on communicative barriers and death patient-physician relationship

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: Curricular changes for Medical graduation includes the development of communication skills of the medical student. The knowledge of the Brazilian Sign Language (Libras) by the physician aims to break communicative barriers with deaf patients and is a good method to obtain qualified listening and excellence in health care. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the contingent of doctors recently graduated from the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG) who dominate Libras. METHODS: Interview applied to the students of the 12th period of the Medical School of UFMG, using an online questionnaire on the Google Forms platform. RESULTS: A total of 102 students were interviewed. None of them had mastery over the language and only 7% had some skill. Of those, what motivated them to learn Libras was the proximity to deaf people, the interest on breaking the communicative barrier between health professionals and the deaf or the curiosity. The way used to learn Libras was varied. A quarter of students did not know about the discipline “Fundamentals of the Brasilian Sign Language (Libras)” offered by UFMG and, among those who knew, only three of them took the discipline. In order to attend a deaf patient, more than half of the students said they would write, design, and/or mimic, and 8 of them did not know what they would do. Among those with some Libras ability, all would use the language even in a limited way. Almost 80% of the interviewed believe that it is important for the medical education to know how to communicate with the deaf through Libras. CONCLUSION: There is a communicative barrier between the doctors recently graduated from UFMG and deaf who use Libras. The study shows, a notion of the grandiosity of this impasse, indicating a need for initiatives that advocate research that reveal the problematic situations, and then, try to solve them.