The Audiology Section at the James A. Haley Veterans' Hospital in Tampa, Florida, has integrated the Ida Motivation Tools into their case history form. This represents an innovative way of integrating the Ida tools into current clinical procedures.
Questions from the Line and the Circle are found on the case history form that is mailed to every audiology patient at the Haley VA Hospital in Tampa, Florida. The patient fills out the form at home before their appointment and is encouraged to consult with their spouse and family as they answer the questions.
At the consultation session, audiologists ask follow-up questions to explore why the patient answered the questions as they did. This discussion helps shed light on the patient's motivation and ambivalence to taking action on their hearing and using hearing aids. At follow-up appointments, audiologists at the hospital often refer back to the case history form to re-examine the patient's progress and potential ambivalence towards continuing their treatment.
"The standard case history form was all medical, and basically had questions that were all in the medical model. One question could have been: 'Do you have ringing in your ears?' It really did not provide a good understanding of where the patient was in terms of their motivation to take action," states Paula Myers, Chief of the Audiology Section and Cochlear Implant Coordinator at the Haley VA Hospital. "Adding the Motivation Tools to the case history form represented a way to go outside the medical model. It started to help the staff understand what we mean at the VA Hospital when we talk about 'Veterans Centric Care'."
Audiologists Michelle Arnold (Ida Fellow) and Delia Karahalios were instrumental in adding questions from the Ida Motivation Tools to the Haley VA Hospital's case history form. Arnold and Karahalios had previously integrated the Motivation Tools into the case history form at the University of South Florida Speech/Language and Hearing Clinic with great success. After introducing the Motivation Tool questions at the Haley VA Hospital, other veterans' audiology clinics in Florida amended their form to add questions pertaining to the Ida Motivation Tools.
To ensure that the audiology staff was prepared to address the new questions on the Case History Form with patients, clinicians at the Haley VA Hospital completed the Ida E-Learning course on the Motivation Tools. This allowed the staff to understand the background behind the Line and the Circle and the importance of opening a discussion with the patient about their fears, hopes, and motivation to change.
You can download a copy of the Haley VA Hospital Case History Form here.