hearinf impairing ment in th OR

Editorial Team / Admin · Jan 25, 2016

Welcome to AN! I do no wear hearing aids, but do have some hearing loss in one ear. Here's an article in the Nurses with Disabilities forum about this subject.

catsmeow1972, BSN, RN · Jan 30, 2016

If i may ask, how much do the hearing aids help? I am also in the OR and over my career i seem to have developed what I think is a bit of hearing loss.(Probably from too much head-banging hair music in the 80's:headphone:) It has gotten to where unless i am looking right at you, i am probably not going to hear you, and if i do i have to ask you to repeat parts because i did not catch the whole sentence. Masks serve to make this even worse because of the muffled voices. The background noise makes it extremely tough also. If I am cruising around the room doing my thing, I can listen for monitors (I am okay with the various pitches of monitors and all) and such, but if I am sitting doing my charting, my tech has been known to ball up a glove wrapper and chuck it at me to get my attention.

I have not had my hearing tested recently but a few years ago when this started, I did and the result was minor loss. If it has gotten worse, which i think is the case, would a hearing aid help enough to be worth the investment?

Rnroamer13 · Jan 30, 2016

Hearing aids have helped. As you know the extraneous noise is very difficult. Hearing aids take a while to get used. Most folks won't give them time for your brain to adjust to all the new input. That being said, have they given me "20/20" hearing. All I want is to be able to continue to work. I also have trouble with words and alarms I can hear. It won't hurt to try aids, but it takes along time to adjust to them