Ethnographic films have long been the basis of the Ida Institute’s work. Over the years, we have built up a rich collection of films detailing clinical encounters between hearing care professionals and their clients. Our ethnographic videos also include interviews with people with hearing loss in their homes, which helps hearing care professionals get an in depth understanding their experiences.
“Our main goal in producing the ethnographic documentaries is to inspire hearing care professionals worldwide to reflect upon their own practice and promote a more person-centered approach,” says Ida Senior Anthropologist Hans Henrik Philipsen. “It is my experience that these ethnographic documentaries work as excellent mirrors, reflecting common challenges for all hearing care professionals.”
The films have also become a popular tool in educational settings. Professors and instructors show our videos to students asking them to reflect on the encounters the same way that professionals are asked to consider the encounters.
Dr. Patricia McCarthy, the program director of the Doctorate of Audiology at Rush University, uses the ethnographic videos in her classes as a way of helping students apply their lessons to real situations.
“I am the biggest cheerleader for the Ida videos. They’ve become a major part of an adult geriatric rehabilitation course I teach,” she says.
“[The videos] require them to do so much more than fill in the blank and answer a test question,” she continues. “It really makes [the students] pool what they’ve learned in their graduate course work and in their clinical work by viewing these videos and dissecting what they’ve seen. They’re getting invested in the process and really understanding how much more in depth and how much more important what they will do in the future is.”
Central to person-centered care is an understanding of the unique needs of each individual who visits a clinician. Because Ida’s ethnographic videos feature real people with hearing loss, the stories reflect specific needs and challenges and provide students with an opportunity to empathize with the video subjects in a way they may not be able to with standard education examples.
“Although I’ve seen these videos several times, every year I’m so moved by how insightful students can be watching these videos. As a professor, it’s been so rewarding for me to have the students integrate what they have been learning in their doctor of audiology programs by analyzing what’s happening [in the videos]. It’s really the best instructional tool I have presently.”