{"id":3071,"date":"2014-09-04T14:28:50","date_gmt":"2014-09-04T21:28:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cpanel.fuelmedserver.com\/~sfaudiology\/?p=3071"},"modified":"2019-04-26T21:00:44","modified_gmt":"2019-04-26T21:00:44","slug":"wanted-perfect-hearing-care-professional","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sfaudiology.com\/wanted-perfect-hearing-care-professional\/","title":{"rendered":"Wanted: The Perfect Hearing Care Professional"},"content":{"rendered":"<header class=\"entry-header\" style=\"color: #404040;\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft\" src=\"http:\/\/sfaudiology.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/Gael-Hannan.png\" alt=\"Wanted: The Perfect Hearing Care Professional | Hearing Review\" width=\"76\" height=\"100\" \/><\/p>\n<div class=\"entry-meta\" style=\"font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit;\"><span class=\"posted-on\" style=\"font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit;\">Published on\u00a0<time class=\"entry-date published\" datetime=\"2014-06-18T20:35:38+00:00\">June 18, 2014<\/time><\/span><\/div>\n<\/header>\n<div style=\"color: #404040;\">\n<h4 style=\"font-weight: bold; font-style: inherit; color: #00516e;\">Blog Page |<em style=\"font-weight: inherit;\">\u00a0Hearing Review<\/em>\u00a0July 2014<\/h4>\n<p style=\"font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; color: #343434;\">The following is Gael Hannan\u2019s March 31, 2014 blog at her Better Hearing Consumer column at\u00a0<a style=\"font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; color: #4169e1;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.hearinghealthmatters.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">HearingHealthMatters.org<\/a>.\u00a0<i>\u2014 David Kirkwood, HHM editor<\/i><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; color: #343434;\"><i><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">By Gael Hannan<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; color: #343434;\">For hearing aid and cochlear implant users, one of the most important people in our lives is our hearing care professional (HCP).<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; color: #343434;\">This person has more influence on my peace of mind, bank account, and quality of life than I would normally give to anyone not a husband, child, parent, or BFF. I see my HCP more frequently than I see my family doctor, probably because hearing loss poses more barriers than other health challenges. It makes me more dependent on technology, which is prone to becoming blocked, broken, flooded, and generally more stuffed up than any other body part, internal or external.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; color: #343434;\">The top factors in the Quality-of-Life index are health, family life, and community life.\u00a0 My personal Q-of-L index improves in these areas when I have good communication. This means being able to move through the day, fully connected to people and technology, with communication access available whether I take advantage of it or not, just like the hearing people do or don\u2019t.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; color: #343434;\">Lack of good communication is stressful\u2014not just for me, but for the people in my life. If I\u2019m having a bad hearing day, you don\u2019t want to be around me. If my hearing aid breaks down, you\u2019ll want to clear out of town. Oh, wait\u2014I would need you to drive me to the HCP, because I\u2019d be engaging in what we used to call a hairy canary.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; color: #343434;\">And that\u2019s why I need the best possible\u2014<i>the perfect<\/i>\u2014HCP who would see me right away, wipe my tears, calm me down, and have me communicating well again, as soon as possible.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; color: #343434;\">And that\u2019s also why, when I find an HCP that I trust, I commit myself to a relationship with that person. The only reason I would ever leave my HCP is if she (or he) moved away, as was the case with my second-audiologist-ago, or if she had a baby and was no longer available, as did my last audiologist.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; color: #343434;\">Happily, the HCP who stepped into their office shoes is a wonderful hearing instrument specialist. I will stay with her as long as she doesn\u2019t move away or start a family\u2014or unless\u00a0<i>I<\/i>\u00a0move out of town. I\u2019m staying with her because I choose to, because she\u2019s good.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; color: #343434;\">I\u2019m lucky to live in an area where there is competition for my business. If I lived in the far north of Canada, for example, I would depend on the services of the circuit HCP, who might swing through every few months.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; color: #343434;\">But if I were on the market for another HCP, I would use this checklist when conducting interviews:<\/p>\n<ul style=\"font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit;\">\n<li style=\"font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; color: #343434;\"><i>Communication skills.<\/i>\u00a0Good articulator, well-modulated voice, hopefully in the lower frequencies, faces me when speaking. (Without these, there\u2019s no point in continuing the interview. Also, I\u2019m tired of training my HCPs to speak better.)<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; color: #343434;\"><i>Well-trained.<\/i>\u00a0A graduate of an Audiology or NBC-HIS program with a real diploma or certificate on the wall. Preferably more than one, indicating additional courses in technology and communications.<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; color: #343434;\"><i>Problem-solver.<\/i>\u00a0Goes beyond comprehensive hearing testing to ask questions about lifestyle and communication needs. If he or she responds to a question with \u201cI don\u2019t know,\u201d will also quickly add, \u201cBut I\u2019ll find out and let you know,\u201d and then follows through. (This sounds more complicated than it actually is.)<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; color: #343434;\"><i>Empathetic, non-paternalistic.<\/i>\u00a0An HCP who assumes to automatically know what\u2019s good for me and prescribes a course of action without my input is not only doing me a disservice, but themselves as well.<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; color: #343434;\"><i>Technically knowledgeable, humanly creative.\u00a0<\/i>Does not regard the hearing aid as the single piece of equipment holding the universe together; will recommend and provide information on other real-life strategies such as smartphone and telecoil technology, speechreading, and other sources of support.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; color: #343434;\">If you\u2019re an HCP and feeling nervous that you can\u2019t meet the above criteria, let me reassure you: with a little bit of effort and a whole lot of desire, you can. These two quotes may help:<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; color: #343434;\">Have no fear of perfection\u2014you\u2019ll never reach it.<i>\u2014Salvador Dali<\/i><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; color: #343434;\">Perfection is not attainable, but if we chase perfection we can catch excellence.<i>\u2014Vince Lombardi<\/i><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; color: #343434;\">If you come anywhere close to being a perfect HCP, people with hearing loss will be knocking on your door. And, if you were my HCP, I\u2019d meet you halfway. I want you to be happy with the perfect client.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; color: #343434;\">My hearing care professional has more influence on my peace of mind, bank account, and quality of life than I would normally give to anyone not a husband, child, parent, or BFF. I see my HCP more frequently than I see my family doctor, probably because hearing loss poses more barriers than other health challenges.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; color: #343434;\">Original citation for this article: Hannan G. Wanted: The Perfect Hearing Care Professional.\u00a0<i>Hearing Review<\/i>. 2014;21(7):10.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><span style=\"color: #404040;\">&#8211; See more at: http:\/\/www.hearingreview.com\/2014\/06\/blog-page-wanted-perfect-hearing-care-professional\/<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"llynx_print\">\n<p><a title=\"Go to Wanted: The Perfect Hearing Care Professional | Hearing Review\" href=\"http:\/\/www.hearingreview.com\/2014\/06\/blog-page-wanted-perfect-hearing-care-professional\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/sfaudiology.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/Gael-Hannan.png\" alt=\"Wanted: The Perfect Hearing Care Professional | Hearing Review\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"llynx_text\"><a title=\"Go to Wanted: The Perfect Hearing Care Professional | Hearing Review\" href=\"http:\/\/www.hearingreview.com\/2014\/06\/blog-page-wanted-perfect-hearing-care-professional\/\">Wanted: The Perfect Hearing Care Professional | Hearing Review<\/a><small>http:\/\/www.hearingreview.com\/2014\/06\/blog-page-wanted-perfect-hearing-care-professional\/<\/small><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Published on\u00a0June 18, 2014 Blog Page |\u00a0Hearing Review\u00a0July 2014 The following is Gael Hannan\u2019s March 31, 2014 blog at her Better Hearing Consumer column at\u00a0HearingHealthMatters.org.\u00a0\u2014 David Kirkwood, HHM editor By Gael Hannan For hearing aid and cochlear implant users, one of the most important people in our lives is our hearing care professional (HCP). This&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","schema":"","fname":"","lname":"","position":"","credentials":"","placeID":"","no_match":false,"name":"","company":"","review":"","address":"","city":"","state":"","zip":"","lat":"","lng":"","phone1":"","phone2":"","fax":"","mon1":"","mon2":"","tue1":"","tue2":"","wed1":"","wed2":"","thu1":"","thu2":"","fri1":"","fri2":"","sat1":"","sat2":"","sun1":"","sun2":"","hours-note":"","locid":"","rating":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sfaudiology.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3071"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sfaudiology.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sfaudiology.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sfaudiology.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sfaudiology.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3071"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sfaudiology.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3071\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4695,"href":"https:\/\/sfaudiology.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3071\/revisions\/4695"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sfaudiology.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3071"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sfaudiology.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3071"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sfaudiology.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3071"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}