Conditions for paediatric hearing screening: a survey in 28 Finnish child welfare clinics

The present Finnish paediatric hearing screening programme was assessed by interviewing nurses and doctors in 28 child welfare clinics responsible for the hearing screening of 18 500 preschool children. Practical issues which might have effects on both performing the screenings and referring the children with abnormal screening results were emphasised. This survey brought out a great variety of deficiencies, which may contribute to the existing delayed diagnosis of hearing impairments. Hearing screening was routinely done 4–12 times per child before school age, instead of the 3 times recommended. Methods with a nonspecific frequency range and sound pressure level were often used. Audiometers were only used in 22 of the 28 clinics, and in only 9 clinics were the audiometers calibrated yearly. The median time of working in the child health care field at that particular health centre was 7 y for the nurses and 6 y for the doctors. Both the nurses and the doctors had numerous responsibilities other than paediatric hearing screening. Implementation of an updating training programme in paediatric audiology for the personnel is recommended.