ABSTRACT
CONTEXT: Since the realization of the difficulties for Deaf people to access care, specific assisting services in french sign language (FSL) and adapted prevention campaigns have developed in France. Illiteracy, a significant problem among Deaf people, makes the comprehension of prescription uncertain. AIM: Exploring and describing the adaptations implemented by professional signers to avoid confusion related to prescription's directions. METHOD: This qualitative study in participant observation listed the different sources of confusion and the adaptations applied on prescriptions on a daily basis by eight practitioners and three intermediators who worked in six care cent ers for Deaf people. Interviews with deaf patients aimed to ascertain the encountered difficulties. These adaptations were presented, for a three-way correlation, during a national meeting attended by professional workers in care centers for Deaf people. They were subjected to a review by all attendees in order to generate a more consensual report. RESULTS: The sources of the identified misunderstandings turned out to be connected with time representation, the use of unknown words or words with double meaning, and the issuing of several documents. To reduce the risk of error, professional signers would use charts, calendars, drawings, replace durations by dates. Some of them requested that the patient would rephrase the understood information. Pros and cons, as well as the pat ient's profile were detailed for each adaptation. CONCLUSION: Even if no method can suppress all risks of confusion, this work leads us to a reflection on alterity through the risk of medicinal errors, on prescription in general, may it be directed to a patient with no particular vulnerability or to a handicapped or illiterate one.
