Hi all,
I’m an almost-life-long HA user (got my first ReSound at 8 years old). I’ve developed a ton of strategies and hacks for navigating audio input over the course of this. My biggest challenge right now is being a new paramedic with hearing loss.
There is a lot I need to catch in noisy, chaotic and rapidly changing environments. I’m specifically interested in connecting with anyone else in the field who has dealt with this, and what your strategies have been to help other coworkers and patients communicate more clearly with you. In some ways, being a paramedic is easier than being an EMT, because I’m more often giving instead of receiving communication/orders; and when it comes to patient assessment, there is nothing audio that I could miss that would lead to a poor outcome (I use the Eko Core scope wirelessly bluetoothed to my hearing aids, and it works rapidly and more efficiently than an ear stethoscope most times).
Gathering history and catching all the communication on scene is the trickiest part.
How have other folks dealt with this?
Open to talking about new aids as well. I just got the Signia Pure Charge&Go, which has more automatic dimming and directionality than I’m used to, coming from Resound Linx, which I had turned off most of the auto-dampening features as I was used to picking out voices amidst the noise and just boosting everything, which I’m told is fairly typical for former pediatric patients. These seem like they’re probably protecting my hearing better from highway noise, engines, etc, but it’s still startling to step out next to an engine and hear everything quiet down, including the captain I’m trying to talk to.