Hearing Impaired Student

[Kmitch7451]

Hi Everyone,

I am currently a PCA at a hospital and I love it! I wanted to get back into school for nursing. I have taken all my pre classes, now I just have to take the entrance exam to the program. But I am dragging my feet a little. I am a hearing imparied person who wears hearing aids in both ears. I'm so afraid I won't be able to do my job correctly once I became a nurse. Doctors normally have heavy accents and then the whole sethescope thing scares me. I'm afraid I'm making the wrong choice about going into Nursing. But its always been a dream of mine. I don't know what to do. I really need some advice :-/

[ashleyisawesome, BSN, RN]

dont let it deter you at all! do a search, because i know ive seen a thread or two about this before. i know there was one nurse on here who was HOH with bilateral HAs and worked in the OR. they also make electronic stethoscopes where you can visualize the hr. assessing breath sounds, heart sounds and bowel sounds might be a challenge, but if other people have done it, i know it must be possible.

it might be a good idea to meet with the people who run the nursing program you are interested in and talk to them about your concerns. let them know that you are functioning fine in the hospital environment now as a PCA and want to further your education.

[tnbutterfly - Mary, BSN]

Hello and welcome to the site. I moved your thread to the Nurses with Disabilities Forum where I think you will get some helpful responses.

Good luck!

[snow_bear]

Hi. I am also a hard-of-hearing pre-nursing student. Due to the nature of my impairment, hearing aids would be of no benefit. Although I will have to make some accomondations and there may be certain specialities (ER) that might be off-limits, I don't believe that pursuing nursing as a profession is impossible.

If you are able to work in a hospital setting and communicate effectively with the doctors, nurses, and other healthcare staff now; then that part of it won't be any different as a RN. As far as the stethoscope issue, there are specialized ones specifically for those of us with hearing problems.

Go for it! And good luck. :)