Clinician-developed modifiable script to support informational counselling during real-ear measurements.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to have experienced audiologists identify the key ideas to convey to clients about real-ear measurement (REM) verification and create a modifiable script to use for REM informational counselling.

Design: A modified concept mapping design was used.

Study sample: Seventeen experienced audiologists participated in one or more research activities: brainstorming individual counselling statements; rating statements on importance and feasibility; and discussing in a focus group how the statements can be used in a counselling script.

Results: Brainstorming generated 227 statements. Researchers cleaned, combined, and recirculated the statements to participants for further ideas, resulting in 136 statements for sorting and rating. Sorting yielded eight categories: Other uses of the hearing aid (HA) test system (11 statements); Purpose of REM (24 statements); Description of procedure (14 statements); Personalisation of hearing aids (14 statements); Setting expectations (21 statements); Speech map stimulus levels (17 statements); Client preparation (19 statements); and On-screen orientation (16 statements). After rating and discussion in the focus group, the final script included 57 statements.

Conclusions: This study identified the key ideas to convey during REM informational counselling and produced a modifiable script that individuals can use when conducting REM.