Telephone options for HOH RN's

[lcynrs8]

hi everybody! i am new to all nurses after being referred here from a fellow nursing student to hopefully get some insight to a problem i am having. i am in my fourth semester of nursing school. like most of you posting, i am hearing impaired. i have bilateral cochlear implants. because of this i am not able to use a regular stethoscope and i have gotten through the program by using a stethoscope that hooks up to a pda which graphs the sounds coming through. i then visualize the heart and lung sounds and have become quite good at deciphering the different sounds. those of you that have prior hearing would probably have a much easier time than i did in learning to distinguish the different sounds with your eyes. the new problem that i am facing is using the telephone. i am aware that there are many avenues to nursing that do not require the use of the telephone but i am really set on working with patients on a hospital unit. i am able to use my cell phone to talk to friends and family and my instructor but unable to use a landline as it is analog, i do much better with digital service. the problem in the hospital is that my cell phone is not in line with the intercommunication system, as well as overwhelming background noise and dr's with little patience. in the past i have used a relay service with vco (voice carry over) which allows me to speak directly to the other person and when they respond an operator would type it to me. i am at a loss with finding any products that are mobile and allow the user intercommunication features. so my question is have any of you ever had a similar experience? i am fully functional in communication in person just lack the telephone ability..... any suggestions?