Hearing Health Begins at Birth
Prince George’s County has the second-highest lost-to-follow up rate in the state of Maryland for Newborn Hearing Screenings, with 44% of newborns not receiving this critical test. Whether babies are not screened at the time of birth, or refer on the initial screening but do not return for re-screenings, the poor follow-up rate leads to delayed identification of hearing loss and therefore delayed intervention. This results in significant impacts on speech and language development as the children are deprived of auditory input during a critical period for these skills.
In an effort to improve the loss rate, Associate Clinical Professor Nicole Nguyen of the Department of Hearing and Speech Sciences (HESP) has established a hearing screening clinic at a Women, Infants and Children (WIC) facility close to the College Park campus. As mothers come for routine visits with their young children, they are offered hearing screenings at no cost if the child is one of the many “missed” cases in the county, or should there be any parental concerns for hearing loss.
This important work is conducted in partnership with the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DHMH), the University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB), and the UMD Hearing and Speech Clinic.
The WIC screening program has the potential for positive outcomes in many ways. Residents of Prince George’s County receive services and education that may typically be hard to access, and the state improves the lost-to-follow-up rates in the Newborn Hearing Screening Program.
HESP students have the opportunity to diversify their patient caseload and clinical practicum through experience with the WIC population, and gain experience with new test methods. This particular WIC office draws ethnically diverse—and heavily Spanish speaking—population, which has given the students a chance to practice as bilingual clinicians.
“My favorite part of working with these patients is definitely the opportunity to practice my Spanish in a clinical setting. Through WIC, I get to fuse together my two passions, and it’s an experience that I look forward to every week,” said Alyson Schapira, a second-year Au.D. student.
Jessica Kreidler, a third-year Au.D. student, notes the positive response said that the bilingual experience was beneficial for the patients as well.
“It was more gratifying to see how the patients reacted when they realized the clinicians were speaking their language. Their reactions demonstrated how invaluable it is to provide culturally and linguistically appropriate services,” Kreidler said.
In three days during the fall semester, more than 40 infants and young children were verified in the Newborn Hearing Screening Program database, and 28 were screened.
This WIC initiative, which began as a research project for a UMB nursing doctoral student Allison Boyer, is a novel approach to improving loss-to-follow-up rates. It was presented at national meetings for the American Academy of Audiology in April and for the Early Hearing Detection and Identification Meeting in March.
Nguyen and her colleagues are now working with a new nursing student, who inherited the project from Boyer. The project’s next phase will focus on improving the processes at the initial screening—which occurs in the hospital right after birth—in an attempt to result in better follow-up.
The clinicians are also working with labor and delivery nurses and hearing screening technicians at Prince George’s Hospital so that babies who refer are provided with a follow-up appointment, scheduled for them, prior to discharge.
Nguyen has created cards that will be distributed to new parents with the hearing screening results, and if needed, the date and time for a follow-up appointment at the UMD Hearing and Speech Clinic. As these evaluations are paid for by DHMH, no costs are incurred by families.
Pictured (left) Jessica Kreidler, a third-year Au.D. student, and Allison Boyer, the UMB nursing alumna who founded the program in 2017.
This story was posted on August 14, 2018.
Published on Tue, Aug 14, 2018 - 12:36PM