Hearing Aids and a Digital Stethoscope Make All the Difference for a New Nurse 

By, Hillary Rossi

Allison Stenbeck has had neurosensory hearing loss since birth. Now she is married with kids, and studying at the Grays Harbor Nursing Program to become a nurse. She will be certified in August.

Allison was offered a nursing position at the same small hospital where she carried out her preceptorship last spring. However, she needed new hearing aids and a specialized digital stethoscope to accommodate her hearing loss.
“I’ve always had mild hearing loss,” she wrote, “but over the last three years, it has been getting gradually worse.”

The hospital Allison trained at could not afford hearing aids for her. Since she had not yet passed her state boards and become a nurse, she is in a one income household and they are just trying to scrape by.

“I knew hearing aids were expensive, but at the time I assumed that most insurance companies paid for them,” she wrote. “I later learned that was not the case. With our limited income, that ended my hope right then.”

Seven years ago, the complications during Allison’s third pregnancy forced her to leave her previous job, and subsequently she and her husband had to apply for bankruptcy. The Stenbeck’s tight budget made $6500 for the hearing aids impossible to come by while they support three children and she finishes up nursing school.

“We knew with our credit history that we would never be approved for a loan [from a traditional bank],” she said.

So, the Stenbecks came to the Washington Assistive Technology Foundation. Allison heard about WATF from the Self Help for Hard of Hearing (SHHH) organization. “My whole family is counting on me to be successful at my new profession as a nurse,” she wrote. “We have been struggling financially for some time. This would improve not only my life but my children’s lives also.”

WATF approved Allison’s loan with a five year repayment schedule. The Loan Review Committee saw that Allison’s  income would increase once her employment started in August, so she would not have any problems making payments. She said that she never before netted over $1,000 a month, and as a nurse, she would earn about $2,000.

“After receiving my hearing aids, my world has opened up,” she exclaimed. “In my daily life, the things that have changed are just basic everyday things.”

Since buying the hearing aids, Allison can hear her kids talking from the next room. She can hear the television set and hear the voices of her friends and family over the phone. She can hear her instructors speak and give directions.

The day she received the hearing aids was also the day she realized turn signals make a clicking noise when they are turned on.

Allison’s  loan also included funds for a digital stethoscope that amplifies noise 18 times greater than a normal stethoscope.

“The first day that I received the stethoscope,” she wrote, “I lined my family up and listened to their lungs, hearts and bellies. I finally understood what my instructors have been saying all along! I know [the digital stethoscope] will help me to become a better nurse.”