07/03/2022
Good morning world and welcome to MY Role Monday - the weekly feature where we shine a spotlight 🔦 on an individual member of our staff. 💙
Today we meet Lauren, who works as part of our wonderful Audiology team at Pinderfields. 🌈
👉 Hello my name is…
Lauren Craven.
👉 What is your job title/where are you based?
I am an Audiologist 👂 at Pinderfields Hospital.
👉 What does your role involve?
My role involves working with adults and paediatrics, who are referred for hearing assessment and management. I perform diagnostic hearing assessments and develop a rehabilitation/management plan depending on the results; this often includes the fitting of hearing aids 🦻, in order to promote effective communication for the patient.
I am currently acting up to a senior position, and have a specialist interest in paediatrics, and so work closely with children and their families to diagnose and manage hearing losses. I use a range of paediatric testing methods in order to perform accurate hearing assessments.
We work as part of a multidisciplinary team and so liaise closely with ear, nose and throat (ENT) and other specialities within the hospital and community. 🌈
👉 What’s the best thing about your role?
The best thing about my role is being able to improve the communication abilities of patients and their families. Having a hearing impairment can have a big effect on a person’s ability to engage and feel included within conversations, with family and friends. Hearing the difference that our intervention has made, is extremely rewarding. Seeing the reaction on a child’s face to hearing their parents speaking for the first time is truly unforgettable, and cements my love of the role. 💙
👉 Is there an aspect of your work that makes you most proud?
I am proud to work as part of the Audiology team and deliver the best quality care for our patients, using a diverse range of testing. Within my role I am also a mentor for the students from the University of Leeds 🎓 and the apprentices from Sheffield College. It makes me proud to see the students and apprentices develop their knowledge and skills, in order to be able to fulfil their roles and ambitions. 🙌
👉 Has your department/ward made any improvements to the service for the benefit of patients or staff?
We are always happy to listen to suggestions from patients about any alterations we can make to the service. The Friends and Family cards have proven to be very good way of doing this. This includes ways of accessing new hearing aid batteries. We also now have multiple ways of contacting the department including email 📧, as using telephones can be difficult if you have a hearing impairment.
👉 Has your service/department/ward had any compliments from either patients or visitors?
We are very lucky to have had lots of compliments from our patients. This is often about a friendly and efficient service that they have received in our department. 🥰
