Providing Information to Families in Newborn Hearing Screening Follow-Up: Professional Challenges

Abstract

Universal newborn hearing screening is effective only when it leads to audiological and educational follow-up. The purpose of our study was to detect the essential factors that contribute to a high-quality follow-up to families with referred babies after hearing screening in Norway. In-depth interviews of six families were performed, as well as a web-based survey focusing on information needs. Informants were families of children born from 2003 to 2009 who did not pass hearing screening. Our findings stress the importance of comprehensive information given at an early stage, although this also may be overwhelming to many families. From the point of screening and throughout audiological, medical, developmental, and educational follow-up, parents react to the quality of information, affecting their trust in professionals. This is particularly evident when decisions need to be made based on ambiguous information. Dilemmas and challenges for professionals providing information to families are explored, and factors contributing to a high-quality follow-up are described.Learning Outcomes: As a result of this article, the participant will be able to (1) identify the challenges professionals meet when providing information to parents, and (2) list at least three measures that facilitate parents' access to information.Families of children with a newly diagnosed hearing loss have changed over the past decade. Following universal newborn hearing screening (UNHS), we now meet parents at an

In Pursuit of Successful Hearing Screening: An Exploration of Factors Associated with Follow-Up Return Rate in a Risk-Based Newborn Hearing Screening Programme

“…Family issues related to caregiver level of education and infant factors have also been considered as contributing to loss to follow-up (7). Provision of appropriate information to families as a means of contributing to high-quality follow-up has also been explored (8). Recommendations regarding provision of information that entails details about what the EHDI process involves as well as reasons for repeated measures and waiting periods between screening or assessment sessions have been made.…”

“…Furthermore, sharing of appropriate information Copyright © 2018, Author(s). This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits copy and redistribute the material just in noncommercial usages, provided the original work is properly cited regarding easy access to professionals to obtain unbiased information that facilitates decision making has also been highlighted (8). Whilst these are some of the services that may assist in ensuring follow-up, professionals also need to consider contextual reasons for poor follow-up return rate, particularly in developing countries where facilities for the effective tracking of mothers are lacking (3,9).…”

Community-based audiology services: An effective strategy for the prevention of hearing loss in rural communities

“…It should be acknowledged, though, that caregiver information sharing does not come without challenges on the professionals' side. Laugen (2013) highlighted that as important as the provision of comprehensive information at an early stage of the EHDI process is, this can also be overwhelming to many families. Caregivers struggle with making decisions when ambiguous information has been shared with them.…”

Preventive audiology in the context of deafblindness

“…It should be acknowledged, though, that caregiver information sharing does not come without challenges on the professionals' side. Laugen (2013) highlighted that as important as the provision of comprehensive information at an early stage of the EHDI process is, this can also be overwhelming to many families. Caregivers struggle with making decisions when ambiguous information has been shared with them.…”