The Ida Institute recently delivered a workshop on person-centered pediatric care to a group of 40 audiologists, speech-language pathologists, educational audiologists, community workers, and teachers of the deaf. The goal of the workshop, which took place in Leeds, UK, was to support hearing care professionals in working in a person-centered way and to train them in using Ida’s pediatric tools.
Michelle Foster, Head of Audiology Services at Leeds Teaching Hospitals, invited the institute to share our tools and knowledge with her team.
“The integrated care systems in the UK are looking at delivering patient-centered care across the whole health system. Sometimes we use words that mean different things depending on our backgrounds,” she says. “As hearing care professionals working with children across Leeds, it’s important that we have a common understanding of what person-centered care means so that we can move forward as a unified service.”
Introducing Ida’s pediatric tools
The tools allow hearing care professionals to better understand their young clients’ experiences, preferences, and communication challenges so that they can create treatment plans suitable for each individual child and family.
Ida’s Associate Director, Ena Nielsen, presented three Ida clinical tools and how they can easily be integrated into clinical and educational settings.
The tools presented in the workshop were:
Growing Up with Hearing Loss, which helps children and young adults with hearing loss and their families manage key transitions as they grow. It includes videos, information on what to expect in each developmental stage, and strategies to help the child learn and grown.
My Turn to Talk for Parents, which enables parents prepare for their child’s appointment by helping them identify the things they’d like to talk to their hearing care professional about.
My World, which makes it possible for hearing care professionals learn about a child’s experience with hearing loss in their own words. It allows children to demonstrate where they have their greatest successes and difficulties throughout their day.
Facilitating change
Nielsen also presented the Change Guide, which helps hearing care professionals introduce the concept of PCC to their team and implement Ida tools through a step-by-step process. She then led the group through an Ida change process, which allowed them to create an overall vision, look at what is working well, what is a barrier to change, and establish priorities and next steps.
Workshop participants were enthusiastic about the content being discussed. Sarah O’Donnell, a Consultant ENT Surgeon with a special interest in pediatric ENT remarked, “It completely redefined person-centered care for me and challenged everything I've learned about what a ‘good consultation’ is since the first day of medical school — in a good way.”
Foster agreed, saying, “I really enjoyed the day and being introduced to the Ida tools. They look great and we now have a clear, city-wide focus and can use the tools to help support our families and patients through their journeys.”
At the end of the workshop, Nielsen concluded, “It was exciting to work with such a diverse team and discuss what it means to be person-centered in a pediatric context and how to implement PCC in a multidisciplinary setting.”