Any Deaf, Hard of hearing Nurses?

Nurses Disabilities

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Hello, I've been a member for a while and am delighted to finally see a forum for nurses with limitations. I am profoundly deaf and getting deafer everyday. Although I do wear 2 BTE's, lip read, know asl, I do speak and I work in the operating room. Any other deaf nurses out there? I'd love to chat with you sometime.

Marvie:welcome:

Specializes in Mental Health.

I've had hearing loss since birth ( Rubella baby). Now a bi lateral aid wearer, lip reader and a little BSL (British Sign language).

I've been nursing Psychiatric clients for over 20 years.

Happy to find a thread about us :D.

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Specializes in OR.

dont let those turkeys get you down. You go girl, and pass the NCLEX!:yelclap::yeah:

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Lots of stories here, good and bad. I too am a HOH RN. I struggled through school not because of resources or instructors per se, but my classmates were awful to me. I've always felt like I've had to work harder, but have welcomed the challenges. I currently use a Littmann Cardiology III stetoscope and have indentions in my ear molds. My employer is currently working with me to get an electronic stethoscope, so my first question is - any suggestions? There are so many to pick from and I don't know that any of them let you try them out first.

My 2nd question is about digital HA's. I've been in programmable BTEs and just starting to try digitals, but I HATE them. I couldn't even do my assessments because I couldn't hear the patient's heartbeat. Usually I just struggle with breath sounds. How do you all do with your HAs? Do you struggle on the phone as well?

I've found my patients are wonderfully understanding but co-workers can be another story.... until they need help with their patients' hearing aids. I would love to work trauma... anyone out there HOH and doing trauma nursing? I too (like a previous post mentioned) worry that I'll miss instructions or misinterpret them and I don't want to jeopardize my patients.

Keep the stories coming... they make me feel more human.

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Hello, I've been a member for a while and am delighted to finally see a forum for nurses with limitations. I am profoundly deaf and getting deafer everyday. Although I do wear 2 BTE's, lip read, know asl, I do speak and I work in the operating room. Any other deaf nurses out there? I'd love to chat with you sometime.

Marvie:welcome:

Marvie,

I wanted to send you an email, but said that you will not accept email. I send you an email back to Sept and have not heard from you. I also tried to send you an email from alldeaf too. I just need some advices from you. I do not know what to do because of the President of Nursing school:madface: do not believe i should be a nurse because of the safety. Can you help me? I am in nursing program. I thought i could talk to you because you are deaf and you are RN in OR. I am very impressed. They think i can be LPN, but i do not want to be LPN. I want to be a RN. I know they asking me stupid questions about how can i hear.. blah blah blah.. I am tired of it.. i can not defend myself. I will appreciated for you to tell me what i need to do to prove to them. I have done much of researches and could not find anything to prove to them. :o

If you dont want to help me, please tell me so i wont bother to send you a message again. If you want to contact with email.. just let me know. I will be happy to hear from you. I have messengers or prefer to use email.

God bless,

Jessica

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Specializes in OR.

I am so sorry that we have been playing email tag. I did send you a response in September but I am thinking you did not get it. I sent you a private message. Hope to chat with you soon.

:typing:icon_hug::Crash::banghead:

Marvie,

I wanted to send you an email, but said that you will not accept email. I send you an email back to Sept and have not heard from you. I also tried to send you an email from alldeaf too. I just need some advices from you. I do not know what to do because of the President of Nursing school:madface: do not believe i should be a nurse because of the safety. Can you help me? I am in nursing program. I thought i could talk to you because you are deaf and you are RN in OR. I am very impressed. They think i can be LPN, but i do not want to be LPN. I want to be a RN. I know they asking me stupid questions about how can i hear.. blah blah blah.. I am tired of it.. i can not defend myself. I will appreciated for you to tell me what i need to do to prove to them. I have done much of researches and could not find anything to prove to them. :o

If you dont want to help me, please tell me so i wont bother to send you a message again. If you want to contact with email.. just let me know. I will be happy to hear from you. I have messengers or prefer to use email.

God bless,

Jessica

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Specializes in OR.

WOW, that is assault plain and simple. It is good that you did report this event and keep good records of things said to you, done to you, and by whom. Paper trails are always best. Because as you know if it's not documented...it wasn't done. I believe that that person who hit you needs to go to some classes to find out what it's like for people with hearing limitations and learn to be nice. I am fairly sure that she probably does not hit all the other nurses on the head if they didn't hear her, does she??:madface::angryfire:smackingf:no:

I am an RN with a profound hearing loss. I've been working as an R.N. in a L.T.C. facility for 16 years now. The DON was very verbally abusive to me regarding my hearing loss; even with my telling her not to talk to me in this way, she continued to do so. I started keeping a written log with dates, times, witnesses to these verbal attacks. One example of one of her rude comments to me was hitting me on the head with a chart; I was standing at the nurses station, apparently she said something to me & I didn't hear her so she hit me on the head...when I looked up she replied "Oh good, now I have your attention!". There were staff & residents present around the nurses station when she did this! Talk about humilation, I wanted to cry but I wasn't about to give her that satisfaction. I went to the Administator and H.R. to report her after one of her attacks on me when she told me to "Go ahead and sue me!" when I had again told her not to treat me like this. Since I talked to the Administrator & H.R., she hasn't made these awful comments to me but she definitely does treat me differently from other staff. It seems like she looks for things to talk to me about, etc. Sorry about this rant! There isn't alot of jobs around this area, is very rural and I don't wish to move away for a differeent job. Thanks for listening! If there is anything else you can think of to help me handle these type of situations, please let me know!!
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Marvie

I am hoh and wear 2 bte digital aides. I have my general courses pretty well wrapped up and start the LPN program in january with intention of transitioning to RN which is where I really want to be.

I took a CPR class yesterday along with 10 others and we were learning the AED portion and I had an extremely difficult time hearing instruction from the machine with all of the background noise.

Driving home, I was very frustrated- wondering if my hearing was going to stop me from being a nurse.

I am concerned about being in an environment where everyone is wearing masks- and I won't know what they are saying!

Any advice?

Thanks,

Diana

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Specializes in IM/Critical Care/Cardiology.
Wow! I am very glad that I am not alone on here. This week is my third week. It is soooooo overwhelmed and i want to scream. I am not very good with papers and critical thinking. I really want to be a nurse. There are some times that I want to give up. My favorite is lab because of hand-on. I will be going to clinical in 3 weeks. Any suggestion?:uhoh3:

Jessica

It will become easier with experience and I believe that begets increased self-confidence. I am a person who needs hands on experience as well. I wish all of you the best of luck and many rewarding nursing years.

Sharona

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Specializes in IM/Critical Care/Cardiology.
I am an RN with a profound hearing loss. I've been working as an R.N. in a L.T.C. facility for 16 years now. The DON was very verbally abusive to me regarding my hearing loss; even with my telling her not to talk to me in this way, she continued to do so. I started keeping a written log with dates, times, witnesses to these verbal attacks. One example of one of her rude comments to me was hitting me on the head with a chart; I was standing at the nurses station, apparently she said something to me & I didn't hear her so she hit me on the head...when I looked up she replied "Oh good, now I have your attention!". There were staff & residents present around the nurses station when she did this! Talk about humilation, I wanted to cry but I wasn't about to give her that satisfaction. I went to the Administator and H.R. to report her after one of her attacks on me when she told me to "Go ahead and sue me!" when I had again told her not to treat me like this. Since I talked to the Administrator & H.R., she hasn't made these awful comments to me but she definitely does treat me differently from other staff. It seems like she looks for things to talk to me about, etc. Sorry about this rant! There isn't alot of jobs around this area, is very rural and I don't wish to move away for a differeent job. Thanks for listening! If there is anything else you can think of to help me handle these type of situations, please let me know!!
Stay assertive, continue documentation, you may eventuallt need to report to the state for harrassment with the equal opportunity for employment people, or report her for discriminating acts to a disabled individual.. There are programs that can help, even your state's attorney general and Board of Nursing if all this continues.

Don't show her your weak side , stay strong and conservative and CYA. What goes around comes around, sometimes it's just s matter of time.

I'm so sorry for your humiliation and having to deal with a bully pwer-trippin moron:balloons:

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Specializes in Rehab, Peds Psych.

I had an instructor that would talk to me really really slow....until I told her that my hearing loss had no bearing on my intelligence. I've also run into rude...ignorant co-workers who want to make me feel like I'm a nuisance because of my hearing loss, but I point out to them it's more of a nuisance to me. I had a rough time dealing with my hearing loss.I have moderate loss in the right and severe in the left. I started to lose my hearing in my last year of nursing school....never have figured out why. I have learned how to deal with it and I don't let anyone make me feel inferior in anyway because I'm not. If we don't stand up for ourselves no one else will.

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Hi - you say you work in the OR? Can you explain how you manage if all are wearing surgical masks considering lip-reading may be a challenge then? I'm a deaf RN (although people think I'm hard of hearing) and communicate orally. I rely heavily on lip-reading. I am interested in L&D, OR, & PACU... just need to get started somewhere and not having much luck.

Any advice you have - please do share!!

Thanks,

redheaded-nurse

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Hi All! :welcome:

Lip Read, know ASL, PSE...Told I have good speech. Been a nurse over thirty years way back in the day before ADA and note takers, Smile.

Been told so many darn times in my life that I couldn't do this or that. I hate being told I can't do something. I much rather try and fail on my own.

Eleanor Roosevelt said "No one can make you feel inferior without your consent" How bloody true is that?

Thanks to Brian for setting this Forum up.

Another excellent place for support and education is www.ExceptionalNurse.com

Good to meet you!

athena

KUDOS to you!!!

I, too, lipread, know sign-language and have been told I have good speech.

Unfortunately, I've been unlucky in getting an internship or a job. Now that there aren't any internships available I've been applying for RN positions. Only to get responses from recruiters saying they aren't hiring new grads unless they've undergone an internship or have 1 year of experience. One of my instructors (and one of my biggest supporters) have said that it was absolutely untrue.

Any advice you may have would be greatly appreciated!

Thank you!

Redheaded-nurse

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