Hearing assessment and childhood hearing loss — structured clinical encounter

Station brief (candidate)

You are the paediatric registrar on the postnatal ward. A term baby, born after an unremarkable pregnancy, refers on the otoacoustic emissions newborn hearing screen in both ears. The parents are anxious and have many questions. The team asks you to explain the screening programme timeline, the diagnostic test that will confirm or exclude a loss, how that test distinguishes conductive from sensorineural hearing loss, what to look for in the aetiology, and the plan if a permanent loss is confirmed. The baby was noted to have a few petechiae at birth and a slightly small head circumference, but is feeding well and is otherwise normal. You have 12 minutes with the team and 5 minutes for examiner discussion. ^[6]