Abstract
Patient-centered care incorporates patient's priorities, values, and goals. Audiologists
can increase patient engagement when they use patient-centered principles during communication.
Recent research, however, has revealed counseling gaps in audiology that could be
detrimental to the intervention process. The present study sought to understand the
extent patient-centered communication strategies were used during hearing device monitoring
visits by analyzing audio recordings. Counseling portions of the appointments were
transcribed using conversation analysis. Missed opportunities were observed, including
not validating patients' emotional concerns, providing technical responses to emotional
concerns, providing information without determining patient desire for the information,
and not engaging the patient in a shared planning process. Training opportunities
to enhance audiological services will be discussed.
Keywords
Counseling - audiology - patient-centered care
