Smith Simon, Manan Nur Syifa Ilyani Abd, Toner Shannon, Al Refaie Amr, Müller Nicole, Henn Patrick, O'Tuathaigh Colm M P
Medical Education Unit, School of Medicine, University College Cork, Cork, Ireland.
Department of Speech and Hearing Sciences, University College Cork, Cork, Ireland.
Age Ageing. 2020 Aug 24;49(5):873-877. doi: 10.1093/ageing/afaa041.
The prevalence of age-related hearing loss (ARHL) increases with age. Older adults are amongst the most dependent users of healthcare and most vulnerable to medical error. This study examined health professionals' strategies, as well as level of formal training completed, for communication with older adults with ARHL, and their views on the contribution of ARHL to suboptimal quality of patient care.
A 17-item questionnaire was distributed to a sample of Irish primary care physicians, as well as hospital-based clinicians providing inpatient palliative care and geriatric services.
A total of 172 primary care physicians and 100 secondary care providers completed the questionnaire. A total of 154 (90%) primary and 97 (97%) secondary care providers agreed that ARHL had a negative impact on quality of care. Across both settings, 10% of respondents reported that communication issues contributed to multiple medication error events each year. Although only 3.5% of secondary care providers and 13% of primary care physicians attended formal training on communication with hearing-impaired patients, 66.5% of respondents were confident in their capacity to communicate with these patients. Primary care physicians reported that they either never used assistive hearing technology (44%) or were unfamiliar with this technology (49%).
Primary and secondary care health providers reported that ARHL reduces patient care quality and may initiate errors leading to patient harm. Formal training addressing the communication needs of ARHL patients appears to be underdeveloped, and there is a limited familiarity with assistive hearing technology. This is both an error in health professional training and healthcare services.
年龄相关性听力损失（ARHL）的患病率随年龄增长而增加。老年人是医疗保健的最大依赖用户群体之一，且最容易受到医疗差错的影响。本研究调查了医疗保健专业人员与患有ARHL的老年人沟通的策略以及完成的正规培训水平，以及他们对ARHL对患者护理质量欠佳的影响的看法。
向爱尔兰初级保健医生以及提供住院姑息治疗和老年病服务的医院临床医生样本发放了一份包含17个条目的问卷。
共有172名初级保健医生和100名二级保健提供者完成了问卷。共有154名（90%）初级保健提供者和97名（97%）二级保健提供者一致认为ARHL对护理质量有负面影响。在这两种情况下（初级和二级保健），10%的受访者报告称沟通问题每年导致多起用药错误事件。虽然只有3.5%的二级保健提供者和13%的初级保健医生参加过与听力受损患者沟通的正规培训，但66.5%的受访者对自己与这些患者沟通的能力有信心。初级保健医生报告称，他们要么从未使用过辅助听力技术（44%），要么不熟悉这项技术（49%）。
初级和二级保健医疗提供者报告称，ARHL会降低患者护理质量，并可能引发导致患者伤害的差错。针对ARHL患者沟通需求的正规培训似乎发展不足，而且对辅助听力技术的了解有限。这在医疗保健专业人员培训和医疗服务方面都是一个失误。
