ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: The mask mandate during the COVID-19 pandemic leads to communication challenges as sound energy gets reduced and the visual cues are lost due to the face mask. This study examines the impact of a face mask on sound energy and compares speech recognition performance between a basic and a premium hearing aid. METHODS: Participants watched four video clips (a female and a male speaker with and without a face mask) and repeated the target sentences in various test conditions. Real-ear measurement was performed to investigate the changes in sound energy in no mask, surgical, and N95 mask conditions. RESULTS: With the face mask on, sound energy significantly decreased for all types of masks. For speech recognition, the premium hearing aid showed significant improvement in the mask condition. CONCLUSION: The findings emphasize and encourage health care professionals to actively use communication strategies, such as speaking slowly and reducing background noise, when interacting with individuals with hearing loss.
ABSTRACT
PURPOSE: This study was conducted to assess public awareness and policy challenges faced by practicing nurses. METHODS: After collecting nurse-related news articles published before and after 'the Thanks to You Challenge' campaign (between December 31, 2019, and July 15, 2020), keywords were extracted via preprocessing. A three-step method keyword analysis, latent Dirichlet allocation topic modeling, and keyword network analysis was used to examine the text and the structure of the selected news articles. RESULTS: Top 30 keywords with similar occurrences were collected before and after the campaign. The five dominant topics before the campaign were: pandemic, infection of medical staff, local transmission, medical resources, and return of overseas Koreans. After the campaign, the topics 'infection of medical staff' and 'return of overseas Koreans' disappeared, but 'the Thanks to You Challenge' emerged as a dominant topic. A keyword network analysis revealed that the word of nurse was linked with keywords like thanks and campaign, through the word of sacrifice. These words formed interrelated domains of 'the Thanks to You Challenge' topic. CONCLUSION: The findings of this study can provide useful information for understanding various issues and social perspectives on COVID-19 nursing. The major themes of news reports lagged behind the real problems faced by nurses in COVID-19 crisis. While the press tends to focus on heroism and whole society, issues and policies mutually beneficial to public and nursing need to be further explored and enhanced by nurses.