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HOSPITAL COMMUNICATION KITS –
A BOON FOR HARD OF HEARING PATIENTS
Adapted from an article by Neil Bauman, Ph.D., © August 2007. For more information, visit Dr. Bauman's website, www.hearinglosshelp.com.
Question: I am going to the hospital shortly and I am worried that I won't be able to hear, or will misunderstand, the instructions and questions of the doctors and nurses since I have quite a bad hearing loss. What can I do to make my stay in the hospital more communication friendly?
Answer: If you are like many hard of hearing people, going to the hospital is scary. Not only are you anxious about your health problems, but you are worried that you won’t hear critically important information as doctors and nurses bustle in and out of your room mumbling instructions as they fill in your chart and hurry away.
You are apprehensive about a number of other problem hearing situations too. Here are a few of them. You worry about not hearing your name being called in the waiting room. You strain to hear conversations with nurses and clerks though glass partitions and wonder if you got it right. The nurse’s response over the intercom when you press your call button is just so much gibberish. You totally miss instructions whispered to you in the dark by the nightshift nurse. Try as you might, you cannot understand comments and instructions uttered by masked doctors and nurses. No wonder you feel scared, cut off and alone at times.
The Solution
The good news is that it does not have to be this way. The secret is to be prepared ahead of time for your stay in the hospital. If you are hard of hearing and going into the hospital for treatment, you can make things much easier for yourself if everyone you come in contact with knows two things: 1) that you are hard of hearing, and 2) how best to communicate with you.
People aren’t going to know this unless you are proactive and tell them. Go prepared with a few things that will help hospital staff remember you are hard of hearing, and have instructions on how they can meet your unique communications needs.
One of the “tools” you should have on hand before you go into the hospital is the Hearing Loss of Association of Washington's Hospital Communication Kit. This easy-to-use, low-cost kit helps ensure that even though you have a hearing loss, you will still be able to effectively communicate with doctors, nurses and hospital staff.
Contents Of The Hospital Kit
Each kit comes in a large Zip-lock plastic bag (9" x 12") so you can keep all the contents listed below in a single convenient location. (please note: the numbers below correspond to the numbers in the yellow dots in the accompanying photograph.)
- “I am Hard of Hearing!” laminated placard with International Hard of Hearing Symbol. On the one side it says “I am hard of hearing. Please face me. Speak clearly.” On the other side it says, “I am deaf. Please face me. I use sign language.” Place this on the wall over your bed with the appropriate side facing out. (the kit includes two sticky “pads” to attach it to the wall without ruining the wall.)
- Writing Pad (5” x 7” yellow) and Pen. For writing messages as needed when you can’t understand a person.
- Hearing Loss Stickers. These 4 small blue stickers show the international symbol for hearing loss. Put one on your hospital ID bracelet. Ask staff to put them on your charts, and on the intercom button at the nurse's station as a reminder that you cannot understand or hear over the intercom.
- Instruction sheet – “Hospital Kit for People With Hearing Loss”. Gives the contents of the hospital kit and what each is for.
- “Please face me, I lip read” Button. Pin on gown or pillow as a reminder that you need to see peoples’ faces in order to speechread them.
- Small Zip-lock Plastic Bag. (4” x 4” with small white instruction card) For temporarily storing your hearing aids/cochlear implants. Comes with label to fill in with your name and room number. If your hearing aids/CIs must be removed prior to surgery, X-rays, etc., the bag should be securely attached to an easily accessible place, e.g. chart, gown, etc. Another small, but nice, feature of this kit is they supply the safety pin to pin this bag to your hospital gown.
- “Tips for Communicating with Hard of Hearing People” Card. The kit includes 6 copies of this card, which includes the common tips we need in order to hear such as get our attention, face me, avoid noisy background, light, etc. Give them to doctors, nurses, hospital staff, visitors, etc. so they know how to communicate with you.
- Special Needs Cards. Each kit contains 3 copies of this checklist. Simply check off what applies to you such as “I am hard of hearing”, “I wear hearing aids”, I need TV captioning”, etc. and give them to your closest care-givers.
- “So You and Your Hearing Loss are Going to the Hospital!” brochure. Reading this brochure will help to prepare you well before any planned hospitalization or emergency. It covers such topics as “Items to ask for” in the hospital; “Items to take” with you to the hospital; “Pre-admission” tips before your hospitalization”; “In the waiting room” tips; “Your rights as a hard of hearing patient”; and “Suggestions to reduce communication difficulties in emergency situations.”Since these kits are not identical, and I like some of the features of each of them, why not get one of each and mix and match the items to suit your needs? In the process, you will not only be helping yourself, but also these two HLAA groups that provide this service.
Click here to order your Hospital Kit online or print out and mail our PDF order form.
Dear Doctor/Dear Nurse Letter
In addition to taking a hospital kit or two with you to the hospital, print off a number of copies of the 2-page “Dear Doctor/Dear Nurse” letter and give signed, personalized copies to the doctors and nurses with whom you come in contact during your stay in the hospital. This letter lists a number of hospital-specific communication tips that will help make your stay in the hospital less stressful.
 Eye-catching Sign for Over Your Bed
Here is a free eye-catching sign for over your hospital bed that says, "I am Hard of Hearing" below a large blue broken ear symbol (see picture at left). It is a full letter-sized page in PDF format. Click here to print out your own copy.
Safeguarding Your Hearing Aids
In addition to your hospital kit(s), you should take a rigid, small, clear plastic container with you for storing your hearing aids or cochlear implant processor in and leave it on your bed-table. Label this container with your name, room number and international hard of hearing symbol. A rigid container is a better option than using the small plastic bag supplied in the above hospital kits. (For example, it reduces the chance of damage to your hearing aids if it gets dropped, and because it is bigger, it is harder to lose or accidentally get thrown out.)
Having your hearing aids thrown out is no joke. The truth is, hearing aids are quite frequently lost in hospitals. Very often this is because they are wrapped in a tissue by the patient and placed on the bed-table, and then are accidentally thrown in the trash by hospital staff. So whenever you take your hearing aids off, put them in your plastic container right away so they’ll be safe.
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