Ida Institute, Copenhagen, Denmark, held the first of three Motivational Engagement seminars planned for 2009 in Skodsborg, Denmark on May 18 to 20.  

The seminar engaged more than 20 hearing care professionals from around the world in a collaborative process to explore how audiologists and other health care professionals can foster and maintain patient motivation to ensure the best possible outcomes, says the Institute.

“Our goal is deepen our participants’ understanding and appreciation of the motivational issues and challenges hearing care professionals and patients face,” says Lise Lotte Bundesen, director of the Institute.

Workshops, group discussion, role-playing, and individual reflection are key elements of the Institute’s second seminar series. The Institute is a pioneer in using ethnographic documentaries and theatrical role-playing to stimulate awareness and appreciation of the challenges faced by people with hearing loss, it says. The videos of patient/audiologist interactions used in the seminar series are filmed in several countries by Institute anthropologists and mirror aspects of the practice of audiology that participants can relate to their own experiences. In networking and knowledge-sharing sessions, participants explore and reflect on differences and similarities in hearing care practice around the world, sharing local experiences to develop a global perspective. 

As part of their seminar experience, participants—many of whom have well-established professional networks—agree to share seminar insights and learnings with other hearing care professionals in their communities. Institute staff, faculty, and participants collaborate post-seminar through a closed online forum created by the Institute.

The seminar’s concept was developed by Ida Institute staff who combine expertise in audiology, education, communications, business, and anthropology, and the Institute’s  advisory board and faculty members in audiology and allied health professions. Faculty members for the second seminar series include David Fabry, PhD, chief audiologist, University of Miami, Miller School of Medicine; John Greer Clark, PhD, assistant professor of audiology, University of Cincinnati, and president of Clark Audiology LLC; and Lorraine Gailey, PhD, chief executive of Hearing Concern LINK, a UK-based national resource for adults with all degrees of acquired hearing loss. 

The May seminar featured guest speaker Hanne Tønnesen, head of research for clinical health promotion, Bispebjerg Hospital, Denmark. Tønnesen’s lecture honed in on her work as a surgeon in gastroenterology and the need to motivate her patients to make lifestyle changes pre-surgery. She introduced tools to support the changing process, which are available for download on www.idainstitute.dk.

The next two seminars in the series for hearing care professionals are scheduled for August and September.  Applicants for upcoming Ida Institute seminars can apply online at www.idainstitute.dk.

Established in 2007 with a grant from the William Demant and Wife Ida Emilie Foundation, the Ida Institute is as a nonprofit independent educational institute that seeks to foster a better understanding of the human dynamics of hearing loss. 

[Source: Ida Institute]