Determining the awareness and attitudes of nurses about aphasia

In this study, it was aimed to determine awareness levels, knowledge levels and attitudes of nurses towards aphasia. For this purpose, nurses were examined in detailed about their awareness levels about aphasia, their knowledge levels, communication strategies used to facilitate communication and their attitudes towards individuals with aphasia. In this study, one of the quantitative methods, descriptive scanning design, was used.150 nurses who graduated from the field of nursing and are working actively in the field were included in the study.The "Aphasia Attitudes, Strategies and Knowledge Survey" and "Aphasia Awareness Questionnaire" adapted within this study for nurses working in various public and private hospitals in Türkiye were administered to the participants via online or face-to face. According to the findings of the study, nurses have high awareness of aphasic individuals and understand some salient features of aphasia correctly, but they cannot give a full definition of the disorder and they have difficulty in obtaining information from individuals with aphasia. They have little knowledge of strategies to facilitate communication with aphasic individuals. It was found that most of the nurses do not know the strategies to facilitate communication with aphasic individuals, they do not feel comfortable when communicating with aphasic individuals and they are not sure about establishing successful communication. Keywords: Aphasia, Nurse, Awareness, Attitude.