Deaf awareness workshop for medical students – an evaluation

Background: Due to a lack of communication strategies and knowledge about the Deaf community, health care professionals are often not prepared to provide deaf or hard of hearing patients with accessible and adapted healthcare. Methods: In the present study, a workshop was designed to determine the effect of deaf awareness training on medical students concerning their gain of knowledge regarding deafness and their competence in providing adapted communication and healthcare for deaf and hard of hearing patients. 95 medical students were evaluated in an online survey prior to as well as following the workshop. The workshop was held online in three consecutive sessions. Results: Students reported a substantially more confident approach to working with hearing impaired patients and indicated that an online learning environment is a suitable and helpful alternative to face-to-face teaching. Participants improved significantly in all evaluated items concerning their knowledge and competence (p<0.001). Furthermore, measurements revealed interaction effects between students’ current period of study and the point in time of self-evaluation before and after the workshop. Preclinical students not only catch up but even surpass their clinical peers concerning their learning outcome. Conclusion: Reviewing the results obtained by this study, we are optimistic with respect to all participants’ highly positive experiences and learning outcomes. Deaf awareness training should be included in the curriculum of all medical faculties.