EARLY HEARING DETECTION AND INTERVENTION VIRTUAL CONFERENCE
MARCH 2-5, 2021
(Virtually the same conference, without elevators, airplane tickets, or hotel room keys)
10/24/2016 | 1:45 PM - 2:45 PM | The Involvement of Primary Health Care Nurses in the Detection of Prelingual Infants with Hearing Loss at the Community Level in South Africa | BGPOP Building 402/403/404
The Involvement of Primary Health Care Nurses in the Detection of Prelingual Infants with Hearing Loss at the Community Level in South Africa
Breakthrough scientific and technological advances have provided opportunities to identify hearing impairments in infants soon after birth. In South Africa, primary health care is the first point of contact with the health system for at least 85% of the population, yet early hearing detection and intervention continue to be elusive in primary health-care settings. Nurses at the community level may, therefore, be missing an important window of opportunity to identify prelingual infants with hearing losses and alter their developmental trajectory.
A review of the research evidence from South Africa reveals that, despite their willingness to work within a team context, nurses are constrained in their services to children with hearing loss due to their limited exposure to training in this area, lack of screening equipment, lack of guidelines and protocols, limited awareness of the high-risk factors for hearing loss, and poor practice in record keeping and referrals. Some nurses had neither screened children for hearing loss, nor did they refer on the basis of certain high-risk factors. At best, the nurses could only inform parents of the professionals parents could contact if they were concerned about the child’s hearing.
This scenario forms the basis of a larger study that aims to develop a model at community level for primary health-care nurses to identify and refer prelingual infants with hearing loss. The study is explored in this presentation, along with preliminary data. Also considered is identification of hearing loss over time, at specific immunization schedules, rather than a single screen at any given time and that closely approximates the Joint Committee on Infant Hearing imperative of identifying, diagnosing and managing hearing loss by 3, 6 and 9 months of age. The envisaged integration of hearing health into primary health-care services is likely to yield cost-effective solutions.
- To describe the current situation with ear and hearing care at primary health care level
- Enable PHC nurses to improve services at community level for infants with hearing loss or at risk of developing a hearing loss.
- To explore the views and opinions of experts globally towards the development of a tool for use by PHC nurses within the context of available resources at community level.
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Presenters/Authors
Nasim Banu Khan
(), University of KwaZulu-Natal Westville campus, khanna@ukzn.ac.za;
Employed as a lecturer in the Discipline of Audiology. Teachers undergraduate and supervisors post-graduate students. Worked for many years in the public health sector. Has an undergraduate Degree in Speech and Hearing Therapy and a Masters in Public Health. Currently doing a PhD at UKZN. Special interest in public health audiology and early hearing detection and intervention.
ASHA DISCLOSURE:
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Miriam Adhikari
(), College of Clinical Medicine , ADHIKARI@ukzn.ac.za;
Professor Miriam Adhikari is an Emeritus Professor of Paediatrics at UKZN. She is the Scientific Advisor for the Postgraduate Office of the School of Clinical Medicine, working with undergraduate and postgraduate students. She is also a Paediatrician and a registered Neonatologist. She has a special interest in paediatric nephrology.
In 2014 she received an Annual Service Excellence Award from KwaZulu-Natal Health Minister, Dr Sibongiseni Dhlomo, in recognition of her overall contribution to health care in the field of Paediatrics.
Prof Adhikari has trained nurses for many years and her main focus is to address the management of mothers and babies by nurses.
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Neethie (Lavanithum) Joseph
(), Audiology, University of KwaZulu-Natal, josephl@ukzn.ac.za;
Dr Joseph graduated as a Speech and Hearing Therapist in 1986 from the University of Durban-Westville (now the University of KwaZulu-Natal-UKZN).
She has worked in both the departments of Health and Education in Durban, South Africa. She took up a lecturing position at UKZN in 1995 and is currently the Head of the Discipline of Audiology in the School of Health Sciences at UKZN-Westville Campus. She lectures in the areas of Paediatric Audiological Assessment, Aural Rehabilitation, Sign Language and Deaf Culture, and Research methodology. She is very involved in postgraduate research supervision, supervising both Masters and PhD students. Dr Joseph obtained her Masters degree in 1999 from the University of Pretoria in the area of communication between mothers and their children with hearing loss. She obtained her PhD also from the University of Pretoria, in the area of communication between signing deaf children and their parents.
She has a special interest in the fields of Deaf education, Aural Rehabilitation. multimodal communication, and parent-child communication.
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Nonfinancial -