Communication Strategies and Accommodations Utilized by Health Care Providers With Hearing Loss: A Pilot Study

Purpose: Poor communication between health care providers and patients may negatively impact patient outcomes, and enhancing communication is one way to improve outcomes. Effective communication is particularly important for health care providers who have hearing loss. The authors found that a systematic survey of the communication strategies and experiences of health care providers with hearing loss had not yet been conducted. Method: In this pilot study, 32 health care professionals with hearing loss were recruited via the Association of Medical Professionals With Hearing Losses and were asked to complete a 28-question survey. Results: Health care providers with hearing loss already employ strategies that all health care providers are encouraged to use in order to enhance patient-provider communication, and survey participants have found the strategies to be effective. Conclusions: The communication techniques and assistive technologies used by individuals with hearing loss seem to be effective: All participants reported feeling able to communicate effectively with patients at least most of the time. More research is needed to determine if use of these communication techniques has similar results for health care providers without hearing loss.