Universal Newborn Hearing Screenings have largely been successful since the National Institute if Health Consensus Development recommended, in 1996, that all infants should receive a newborn hearing screening prior to hospital discharge. Currently, the implementation of newborn hearing screening programs is varied across states and hospitals in the U.S. Due to this high variability, it is the responsibility of each individual hospital to formulate and consistently maintain a protocol for their newborn hearing screening program. This can create a great burden among hospitals as they must obtain the appropriate equipment, as well as employ and train screeners. However, national medical groups may be utilized to alleviate this burden. These medical groups supply the equipment, and more importantly, employ and train the screeners. This not only alleviates the burden on hospitals, but also provides a degree of standardization across newborn hearing screening programs which may reduce lost-to-follow-up statistics. Hospitals who do not utilize a national medical group may not have the expertise to formulate a comprehensive newborn hearing screening protocol. Our study is interested in examining if birthing hospitals that utilize a national medical group have more standardized medical protocols and have better (lower) lost-to-follow-up statistics. A survey was administered to current universal newborn hearing screeners employed at five hospitals across the eastern region of Tennessee. The survey examined various aspects of a typical newborn hearing screening program including training protocols and requirements, screening equipment, data recording and tracking, and methods of delivery of test results. In our presentation, we will be sharing the results of this study and interpret the data in light of determining best practices for newborn hearing screenings.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ETSU/oai:dc.etsu.edu:asrf-1269 |
| Date | 12 April 2019 |
| Creators | Elangovan, Saravanan, Brown, Ashley, Harman, Molly, Bramlette, Shannon, Wilson, Diana |
| Publisher | Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University |
| Source Sets | East Tennessee State University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Source | Appalachian Student Research Forum |
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