Training for hearing care providers.

Mahmood F Bhutta,Suneela Garg,Xingkuan Bu,Kelvin Kong,Patricia Castellanos De Muñoz

doi:10.2471/blt.18.224659

Abstract

The lack of an appropriately trained global hearing-care workforce is recognized as a barrier to developing and implementing services to treat ear and hearing disorders. In this article we examine some of the published literature on the current global workforce for ear and hearing care. We outline the status of both the primary-care workforce, including community health workers, and specialist services, including audiologists, ear, nose and throat specialists, speech and language therapists, and teachers of the deaf. We discuss models of training health workers in ear and hearing care, including the role of task-sharing and the challenges of training in low and middle-income countries. We structure the article by the components of ear and hearing care that may be delivered in isolation or in integrated models of care: primary care assessment and intervention; screening; hearing tests; hearing rehabilitation; middle-ear surgery; deaf services; and cochlear implant programmes. We highlight important knowledge gaps and areas for future research and reporting.

Highlights

The lack of an appropriately trained global hearing-care workforce is recognized as a barrier to developing and implementing services to treat ear and hearing disorders.[1,2,3] This barrier is a particular issue in many low and middle-income countries, where a historical lack of awareness of the impact of such disorders, and a lack of prioritization against competing health needs, has led to low investment in relevant specialist resources.[2,3]Both general and specialized health workers can be used to deliver ear and hearing services (Fig. 1)
They can be deployed in a variety of service delivery models, which may be informed by a needs assessment and evaluation of existing regional health infrastructure.[1]
The primary-care workforce for ear and hearing health may include community health workers, primary care nurses or primary care physicians, any of whom who may screen for disease and provide preventive or medical care

Summary

Introduction

The lack of an appropriately trained global hearing-care workforce is recognized as a barrier to developing and implementing services to treat ear and hearing disorders.[1,2,3] This barrier is a particular issue in many low and middle-income countries, where a historical lack of awareness of the impact of such disorders, and a lack of prioritization against competing health needs, has led to low investment in relevant specialist resources.[2,3]Both general (primary care) and specialized health workers can be used to deliver ear and hearing services (Fig. 1). In most low-resource settings, there are inadequate numbers of doctors to provide primary hearing care, and in several countries nurses or community health workers fill this workforce gap.

Results

Conclusion