[Working with hearing impairment: an integrated approach].

Patients with hearing impairment are more likely to encounter health problems and difficulties at work than their colleagues with normal hearing. This is often not realised by either patients or professionals. In this article we describe three cases that illustrate how working conditions can influence the health of workers with hearing loss.

A process evaluation of implementing a vocational enablement protocol for employees with hearing difficulties in clinical practice.

Objective: A multidisciplinary vocational rehabilitation programme, the Vocational Enablement Protocol (VEP) was developed to address the specific needs of employees with hearing difficulties. In the current study we evaluated the process of implementing the VEP in audiologic care among employees with hearing impairment.

Design: In conjunction with a randomized controlled trial, we collected and analysed data on seven process parameters: recruitment, reach, fidelity, dose delivered, dose received and implemented, satisfaction, and perceived benefit.