What sound would you miss most if you could not hear?

Anne,

Before I became a nurse, my first degree was in speech and language pathology from Purdue University. During our training, we were challenged to enter the world of the “disadvantaged” as best we could simulate. A day in a wheelchair sounded like it could have been fun and quickly turned into dismay when I discovered I could not shower or even get out of my dorm. Faking a stutter after being stopped by a policeman for an expired inspection sticker did manage to help me escape a ticket, but I was completely humiliated by his look of dismay and his impatience. I anticipated that blindness would be the worst “handicap” imaginable until I spent a day wearing ear plugs and headphones that blocked other sounds by playing white noise in your ears all day. It’s surprising how quickly I felt paranoid and how quickly things I took for granted became challenging and even fearful. I did not realize how much auditory cues help you drive, cross a street, back away from a swinging door or duck when a Frisbee is headed your way. By the end of the day, I was exhausted. A day spent with your eyes taped and sunglasses meant others were there to help much more so than when I was “deaf” (perhaps because I did actually need someone to lead me everywhere and it was a much more visible impairment). I could talk about the challenge, interact with everyone and still go to class without difficulty as long as I recorded the lecture and didn’t try to take notes. Blindness separates you from things; hearing loss separates you from people. I’d rather be blind.

I chose to pursue nursing as a career, and the lessons I learned from my Speech Path experience have stayed with me — and hopefully have made me a better nurse and a better case manager.

Christie W. Baxter, RN, MSN, CCM
Director, Quality and Utilization Management
Athens Area Health Plan Select
cbaxter@aahps.com

Anne,

Being hearing-impaired and a hearing-aid user for many years, I really appreciated your comments. It remains very frustrating that those without this disability are often unconscious of their behavior, such as talking with their hands in front of their mouth (all of us do lip-read to some extent, but some of us rely more on it than others). Even worse is turning around and talking in the opposite direction! Most people without hearing loss do not realize the distinction between hearing sound and UNDERSTANDING the sounds that you make. Clear and distinct speech is a treat!

A nice gesture is to offer a hearing-impaired person the seat in the corner, away from the center of the room so that the person is not distracted by sounds coming from behind, etc.

Barbara Klein-Robuck, MS, RN
Nurse Consultant / Nurse Case Manager
San Juan Capistrano, California 92675
BarbaraKR@aol.com