[Nursing Experience Caring for a COVID-19 Patient With Hearing Loss].

ABSTRACT

The focus of this article is on a male patient with hearing loss who was diagnosed with COVID-19 after returning to Taiwan from overseas. Due to the severe pneumonia infiltration, the patient received the clinical-trial treatment Remdesivir. In addition to facing the isolation and new-drug-related anxieties of the patient, the medical team faced difficulties in communicating effectively with the patient and in helping him through the isolation period. During the period of hospitalization (March 14th to April 13th, 2020), the author used Roy's adaptation model to perform a nursing assessment, which confirmed that the patient faced the following problems (1) ineffective breathing pattern related to COVID-19, (2) impaired verbal communication related to hearing impairment, and (3) social isolation related to the isolation experience and the communication barrier with healthcare workers. During the nursing care process, the author helped the patient receive the antiviral treatment and taught him how to do diaphragmatic breathing in a comfortable, recumbent position to improve his breathing pattern. To reduce the difficulty of communication, the author made a pile of cards with common care-related words, provided pen and paper to write, and used a mobile-phone-based social-networking application to communicate with the patient. The author used writing to communicate with the patient and learned some simple signs from him to enable interaction. Moreover, the intervention helped him adapt to the isolation and treatment protocols to reach holistic nursing care. Based on this experience, the author suggests that hospitals cooperate with sign language organizations to teach healthcare workers simple communication skills, including sign language and cards to provide more complete care for patients with hearing loss during hospitalization.