hard of hearing to RN

Nursing Students Pre-Nursing

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Hi, I have a slight hearing problem, i don't wear hearing aids although I probably should. My question is. After a dr. sees a patient Do they write down the orders and then you follow them? Or do they verbally relay them to you first. I know I can do this but, I'm scared. I worry constantly that I wont hear something, and that I'll mess something up because I didn't hear it right. Any advice?

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Can be either. If you are worried, I would suggest you get a hearing aid and any time you receive a verbal order you should repeat it back to the doc anyways. ("You said you want me to give 10 cc normal saline over 30 minutes?"....)

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Thanks, Sometimes hearing aids just make it worse, there always seems to be too much background noise. But, about the repeating part, is that something nurses do anyway, or is it something that will annoy the Dr. if I continually repeat his orders in a question? I"m a nervous wreck. thanks for the help. :uhoh3:

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It is standard policy to repeat orders to make sure there are no misunderstandings, especially with phone orders.

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Thanks for taking the time to help me out here, I already feel a lot better. Now if I could just get through school and the exam and the first year as a practicing RN I'll be ok, or will I? :chuckle

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I'm so glad you asked this question. I'm hard of hearing also and wondered how this was going to affect clinicals, etc.

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Specializes in PeriOp, ICU, PICU, NICU.
Can be either. If you are worried, I would suggest you get a hearing aid and any time you receive a verbal order you should repeat it back to the doc anyways. ("You said you want me to give 10 cc normal saline over 30 minutes?"....)

I agree. This seems to be your best bet. Never think twice about aking q's or repeating yourself! Best of luck to you :)

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Hello. As someone who has worked with the deaf and hard of hearing for 20 years, I have to put in my two cents here. My advice would be for you to go see a qualified audiologist, have your hearing tested and discuss your options with the audiologist. A hearing aid may or may not be appropriate depending on your type of loss. Also great gains have been made in hearing aid technology in recent years with digital technology. The background noise issue is definitely being addressed with modern amplification. Also, many hearing aids are the In The Ear style and are hardly even noticeable. Even if someone notices, if they treat you differently because you have a hearing aid, THEY have a serious problem.

My experience has been that hard of hearing people who don't wear their hearing aids are often very misunderstood. Often people notice that the h of h person misses things, but instead of people realizing it is hearing, they often think the person is not "sharp" or "on the ball".

Little information is many times extremely important. I often think of the example of my student who missed an important meeting for work because he thought his boss said P.M. instead of A.M. Needless to say he was in trouble with his boss, who may or may not have been understanding about the fact that he didn't hear correctly because he wasn't wearing his hearing aids. I say, why make it harder on yourself and others around you, including the patients? I'm sure you want to do the best job you can as a nurse which may involve addressing your hearing needs.

I recently went to a conference where I met many people who were profoundly deaf, all oral and all highly successful. These individuals all have profound hearing losses, but it has not stopped them in the least. Have they dealt with ignorant people who have not understood their hearing loss? Yes, but they have overcome it.

I do think having the dr. repeat or you repeating the info. back to him/her is a good strategy, but I honestly think you should first of all go to an audiologist that can present your options to you. You may even find out you don't need a hearing aid at all and he/she may have some other ideas for you. And if you do, it will only make your life much better I'm sure. It often takes time to get used to the idea and to adjust to it, but I feel it is worthwhile in the end. Sometimes people just don't really realize what they are missing and it opens a whole new world to the person.

Another factor is the encouragment you can be in the future to patients of yours who are hard of hearing themselves. Think about what help and encouragement you could be to them?!

Good luck and let us know how you make out!

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Specializes in Lactation Ed, Pp, MS, Hospice, Agency.
Hi, I have a slight hearing problem, i don't wear hearing aids although I probably should. My question is. After a dr. sees a patient Do they write down the orders and then you follow them? Or do they verbally relay them to you first. I know I can do this but, I'm scared. I worry constantly that I wont hear something, and that I'll mess something up because I didn't hear it right. Any advice?

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The sooner u find out the better. It may slow down your hearing loss. It won't hurt if u r in Nursing School either, only help. I had a girlfriend that went all the way through school w/an Aid & we had another girl that had a Coclear Implant. She had a notetaker that typed as the the Prof lectured. Helped her tremendously! They were both A-B students too. Both of them HIGHLY recommended the expensive "enhanced" stethescope also. Said they run $500.00 but well-worth the piece of mind. The one girl w/the implant only needed to "plug-in" her scope to her implant & listen. Cool huh? I love advanced technology!

~MJ

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The sooner u find out the better. It may slow down your hearing loss. It won't hurt if u r in Nursing School either, only help. I had a girlfriend that went all the way through school w/an Aid & we had another girl that had a Coclear Implant. She had a notetaker that typed as the the Prof lectured. Helped her tremendously! They were both A-B students too. Both of them HIGHLY recommended the expensive "enhanced" stethescope also. Said they run $500.00 but well-worth the piece of mind. The one girl w/the implant only needed to "plug-in" her scope to her implant & listen. Cool huh? I love advanced technology!

Although it won't slow down a hearing loss, it might allow for intervention if the loss is correctable. There are different types of hearing loss. Is it Conductive or Sensorineural?

That's really neat about your experiences with the hard of hearing/deaf people in your classes. Cochlear Implants are very helpful for many people. I believe you are talking about an FM system? Perhaps the teacher was wearing a transmitter/microphone? Stethoscopes are generally used to listen to hearing aids, to troubleshoot. I've also seen people listen through stethoscopes if they don't have hearing aids. But, what you're talking about may be a kind of FM system. The girl would be plugging her Processor (mini computer with her implant) into an FM Receiver. The girl with a hearing aid could put Receivers on the end of her hearing aids in order to hear the teacher better. He/she would have to wear a Transmitter/Microphone though. Neat with advanced technology isn't it? Your classmate may have been benefitting from Real Time Captioning and it's really terrific that she had that kind of accomodation! :)

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I have a Sensorineural hearing loss. I can hear much better when someone is facing me. So far I've not needed a note taker, however with the fast pace of Anatomy and Organic Chem coming in the Fall 05 I am comsidering asking for a note taker this year for those two classes. Thanks for all of the adivce. Oh I also plan on buy the enhansed stethescope too. :uhoh3:

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Specializes in CCRN, CNRN, Flight Nurse.

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