Mrs Jennifer Eakin1, Ms Stephanie Keszegi1
1Gold Coast Health, Southport, Australia
Whilst universal newborn hearing screening primarily aims to detect bilateral, moderate or greater permanent hearing loss, newborns with non-target hearing loss conditions, such as transient conductive hearing loss are also identified, with prevalence rates of conductive hearing loss in newborns significantly higher than that of the target condition. Much research has focused on validating the assessment and management protocols for newborns with the target hearing loss condition, with much less evidence available to guide clinicians on the most appropriate recommendations for newborns with transient conductive hearing loss, a condition which is acknowledged to have long lasting impacts on speech and language development and auditory processing if left without intervention.
This presentation will report on the assessment and management of 31 newborns seen at the Gold Coast University Hospital Audiology service between 2020 and 2021 and diagnosed with transient conductive hearing loss following a refer result on their newborn hearing screen. The patient’s journey will be analysed for the frequency and type of appointments, chosen management pathway (conservative monitoring, onward referral for amplification and/or medical management) and hearing outcomes at 12 months of age. Furthermore, we will present a qualitative analysis of four semi-structured clinician interviews exploring the audiologist’s perspective of newborn diagnostic audiology and pull out themes related to supporting families of babies with non-target hearing loss conditions.
Findings will be summarised in a SWOT analysis with the goal to inspire conversation around how audiology services can better support parents of newborns with non-target hearing loss conditions, in particular, transient conductive hearing loss.
Biography:
Jennifer has over 20 years experience working as an audiologist within the Australian and UK public health systems, specialising in cochlear implantation and newborn diagnostic assessment. Jennifer currently leads the audiology service at the Gold Coast University Hospital in Queensland.
Jennifer.eakin@health.qld.gov.au
Stephanie has 5 years diagnostic audiology experience working in Queensland public health services. Stephanie also works at the Gold Coast University Hospital with particular interest in supporting families through the diagnosis of their child’s hearing loss and in the holistic management of children with complex medical and development needs.
Stephanie.keszegi@health.qld.gov.au