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The Cleveland Clinic shared this story about Marissa Pusateri, BSN, RN.
"Marissa was diagnosed with bilateral
profound hearing loss at 9 months old. She received cochlear implants as a
toddler and then embarked on several years of speech therapy and auditory
training. Although she says her hearing loss was never much of an obstacle during
her school years, “everything changed” when she began working in the ICU."
“Everyone has a hard time with masks, but it is even more of
a challenge for someone like me,” she explains. “Masks constrict the sound of a
person’s voice and obviously make it impossible to read lips. The stress was
overwhelming at first, but I quickly realized that the best – and only –
solution was to be open about my needs. Once I made it clear to my colleagues
that they had to speak up, things instantly improved.”
"Receiving a phone call or interpreting verbal
instructions from a physician – especially one with an unfamiliar accent – can
be particularly difficult, she notes. She has learned to manage the sounds in
the ICU — the equipment and cacophony of voices — by positioning herself in
locations that give her a clear view of the room and her fellow
clinicians."
"Pusateri explains that she initially had trouble
hearing through the Vocera devices that the staff uses to communicate with each
other. Always willing to find a solution, she discovered how to route Vocera
calls through her cell phone, which is connected by Bluetooth to her hearing
aids."
“That was life-changing for me,” she says.
Read more at: Nurse
Overcomes Career-Limiting Disability With Openness, Ingenuity
Cheers!
Donna
