What Does Culturally Responsive Hearing Care Look Like? The Views of Service Users, Clinicians, and Researchers.

Objectives: To identify the most important culturally responsive behaviors of hearing care professionals (HCPs) from the perspectives of ethnic communities, HCPs and research experts in culturally responsive hearing healthcare.

Design: This study used mixed methods, including qualitative interviews and a two-round electronic Delphi (eDelphi) study. Interviews were conducted with 46 community members with hearing loss and their family members. An international panel of 45 HCPs and researchers with expertise in working with people from ethnic communities participated in the eDelphi study (n = 45 in round 1; n = 40 in round 2).

Results: Interviews with community members with hearing loss and their family members identified several desirable behaviors, forming a comprehensive list for the international eDelphi study. The eDelphi panel selected the 10 most important behaviors, identifying that HCPs should: ask about the need for interpreters and information in other languages, ask about client's hearing and appointment expectations, ask if client prefers including a family member, take time to explain options' benefits and limitations, encourage client to ask when they do not understand, ask about preference for male/female clinician, check client's understanding of instructions, inform client about local resources, talk about hearing devices/strategies, and ask client about questions/concerns before leaving clinic.

Conclusions: Culturally responsive hearing care and client satisfaction could be improved by facilitating the HCP behaviors identified in this study. The culturally appropriate behaviors that were identified were not specific to hearing care and may be relevant in other areas of health and social care.