MotivationalEngagement

SeminarsonMotivationalEngagement

This seminar series addressed the topic of motivational engagement in audiology.

It has been well established that before persons with hearing loss seek help from an audiology or hearing healthcare service, they (or their partners) must first reach a sufficient level of awareness about the social and personal communication problems in their everyday lives. 

This seminar series offered participants the opportunity to reflect on the concept of motivation once that critical level has been reached.  This helped participants address the important milestone when a patient turns up at an audiology clinic for the first time. From that moment on, the degree to which patients are motivated and/or engaged to address the problems caused by their hearing loss is often the single most influential factor in determining the effectiveness of their contact with audiologic services.

As often seen in clinical practice, a patient who is highly motivated to seek improvement is likely to persevere with any intervention, even if early experiences are disappointing. Patients with sufficient levels of motivation ultimately reach good outcomes.  In contrast, patients who have little motivation to change are unlikely to achieve a good outcome even if early experiences were unproblematic.   

The focus of this seminar was how audiologists and other hearing healthcare professionals can create requisite patient motivation and/or help ensure that existing motivation remains high enough to achieve the best possible outcomes.   

The seminar series used the Ida framework to offer participants the chance to explore both their own practices and also the practice of audiology within a wider global context.