[Professional communication in long term health care quality]

To Identify aspects of professional communication that affect the quality of long-term care for patients with chronic illness or disabilities and their families, in the experience of health professionals, as input for the development of an assessment tool.

Descriptive qualitative.The data was processed by performing an interpretative analysis from grounded theory. The participants included 12 health professionals (three doctors, three nurses, three therapists and three psychologists), who work at the Hospital of the Universidad de La Sabana, Chia, and other institutions in Bogota, Colombia,with more than five years experience in programs treating chronic disease or disability in hospital therapeutic contexts. Semi-structured interviews and a Delphi survey were used. Validation strategies included, theoretical sampling, script evaluation by judges, triangulation of data collection techniques, and interviewers.

We defined specific aspects of professional communication that could optimize the quality of health care, in information management as well as in the relationships with patients and families. From these aspects, an explanatory matrix was designed with axes, categories, and codes as a support for the construction of tools.

Health communication, in order to become a therapeutic support element, requires professional training in communication skills to give information in an understandable way, with emotional support and coping possibilities. It should include and involve the family in decision making.