ALHE4060 Research In Allied Health - Journal Article Review Form
This assignment gives your first experience of reading and reacting to journal literature in Allied Health Research. Many
students never realize there's a world beyond the textbooks and so it's all new to them. You learn that in your specialty
there are things printed every day that are new. You will have to keep up to maintain your professional competency. Journals
are a resource that you can use, both here in school and when you get out in a professional situation. The assignment is carefully
sequenced with clear due dates and instructions.
I believe that all of you, as future health care professionals, should be aware of how you can keep up on new developments
in allied health and the issues that surround them. Therefore, the objectives of this assignment are to familiarize you with
the available literature in medicine and allied health.
To meet the objectives of the assignment, you will:
· Read and study, in detail, one current article on a topic covered in class from any of the three journals mentioned above.
· You will submit two assigned journal articles as Discussion Forums,
and you may submit 2 or more of your own for credit in ALHE4060. Ask the instructor if you wish to submit more than 2.
Details of What You Need To Do:
1. Go to the library and check out the issues of the journal. You can also use the Internet for a resource.
2. TIP: Most Journals publish a subject index in their December issue. This is extremely useful and convenient when performing
searches on subjects.
3. Look through the selected article ass well as the rest of that issue of the journal and several other recent issues
to get a clear understanding of:
4. what kinds of information is published,
5. what audience it is intended to serve
6. Whether references for further information are given.
7. Complete the Journal Article Review Form and submit by the due date.
To receive full credit for this assignment, you must answer all questions on the review form and submit it by the due date.
Here is the information you should submit to your Research website:
Title of Journal
Article "Should children who use cochlear implants wear hearing aids in the opposite ear?"
Title of Journal
Ear Hear
Volume___________5___________________ Date 10/22/ 2001 Page Number(s) 365-380
· What organization is responsible for publishing the journal you chose?
National Acoustic Laboratories, Chatswood, Australia
· What is your overall evaluation of this article?
_____Poor ______Fair ______Good ____ X___Very Good _____Excellent
· Why did you choose to review this particular article?
The main reason that I chose to review this particular article lies with the fact that I am a cochlear implant recipitent.
I also use a hearing aid to balance out the sound that I hear. The hearing aid is not as good as an implant, but being able
to hear something from both ears makes a world of difference. I chose to review this article because I believe that it is
correct and I stand by what they are trying to prove. With my own experience, I can honestly say that having binaural hearing
is so much more beneficial regardless of what is being used in each ear to hear. I also have several agreements with this
article concerning language perception, hearing, and the differences that are portrayed between a hearing aid and a cochlear
implant. The article is important for those who have family or friends that have this "problem," because it helps to understand
why a person chooses to wear to different pieces of equipment. The cochlear implant has a great reputation, range of hearing,
and amazing quality, but it does not balance out the deafness of the other ear. I believe this article is only for those who
know about being deaf or have children that are deaf and are experimenting with a cochlear implant.
· How would you rate this article as a tool for teaching a student about
cardiopulmonary physiology, radiography, or another allied health specialty?
Students: ____Poor ____Fair ___X__Good _____Very Good _____Excellent
Teachers: ____Poor ____Fair ___X__Good _____Very Good _____Excellent
Patients: ____Poor ____Fair _____Good __X___Very Good _____Excellent
· Comment on the readability of this article.
The article is very simple to read, and the contents are not very complex at all. The content is a simple
comparison article that tries to prove a point, whether a hearing aid should be used with a cochlear implant. The article
spells out what was done in the investigation of the 16 children who were using the cochlear implant (Nucleus 22 or 24). This
article is a very good example in how it is broken down into layman's terms so that the general public is able to read and
understand the study. Many people are not exposed to the hearing impaired/deaf world, and some of the scientific components
go overboard on readability. Many articles are used between audiologists and physicians so that they can confer with their
patients about what to do about their hearing.
· Course Topics covered:
The topics covered in this article are few:
Does a hearing aid need to be adjusted to match the loudness of the cochlear implant?
Binarual Interference
Binaural benefits: Speech perception, Localization, Communicative Functioning
Experiment with 16 children that have cochlear implants
Results: Positive result that children do benefit from a hearing aid
· Brief Summary:
In my own experience with a cochlear implant, I also wear a cochlear implant on the left ear. This article
tries to compare the benefits of having a hearing aid or not having one with or without the cochlear implant. An experiment
of 16 children that have cochlear implants, several methods were used. Testing included wearing a cochlear implant with a
hearing aid, testing with only the cochlear implant, testing with only the hearing aid, and testing the implant with the hearing
aid adjusted to individual requirements. The purpose of the study was to find out if having a hearing aid on the opposite
ear did benefit the recipient. The results were as expected, the children's performances did not seem poorer but better. Language
perception seemed to increase, and communication seemed to be better. This is especially true in my case, because I was able
to balance out the sound with the hearing aid and be able to function even more normally. It is a given that just because
a person with both instruments do not understand everything, but are more able to pick up on signals that can be heard. I
have always worn the hearing aid with the cochlear implant, and will continue to do so. It has improved my functions and the
article stands correct in that it revealed positive results.
· Identify and attempt to explain three (3) terms, procedures
or concepts that were unfamiliar to you when reviewing this article.
One process I did not understand and never have was the decible scale. I have never really studied it as
well as I should, but I do know most of the audiology processes considering I have been around them all my life. I am also
unfamiliar with the SPEAK strategy in the cochlear implant, I have never heard this term used around audiologists. Lastly,
I am somewhat unfamiliar with the NAL-RP prescription that is supposedly used for children who need a hearing aid along with
the cochlear implant. I have been around audiology all my life and many things are familiar to me, but I did not want to go
to audiology school to study this field. This is the main reason that I did not understand these three components, but I was
able to use context clues to figure out what is being said.
· Detail the strengths/weaknesses of this article.
There are a couple strengths to this article such as:
It is informative to people that have cochlear implants and it eases doubt for those who are unsure of the
hearing aid
It stresses how important language, communication, and hearing really are
The article is used for a good cause and it is readable for an everyday person who does not deal with this
issue
The positive results show promise for those who suffer from hearing loss and are planning to undergo surgery
for the cochlear implant
Weakness:
There is only one weakness that this article has, and it is the fact that it does not explain all the procedures
in detail so that the reader knows exactly what is being said. The reader must guess that this "process" is used for this
purpose. If the article were more detailed, anyone could pick it up and read it with no trouble at all.
· How might this article be useful to you in your further
studies and career?
This article does not relate to respiratory at all, but it is useful to me personally. I have a cochlear
implant and it is nice to know that a hearing aid is beneficial to the binarual process. I can use this article as proof for
those who seem skeptical about this issue, which there are some that are. It is usual to find skeptical people with this disability,
but an article that includes an experiment that proved the benefits of a hearing aid with a cochlear implant will help brighten
one's path. This article is useful personally, and it may benefit another cochlear implant patient or parent.
· Does the article include a list of references/citations
that can be used to find more information on the topics they cover?
This article has several articles relating to this topic in detail. There are several studies that have tried
to prove this issue and succeeded. The list of references are normally by the same journal, "Ear Hear," but sometimes there
are random articles that do not relate to the issue at hand. These other articles can be used for more information and future
references for anyone interested in the technological advances of the hearing/deaf world.
Your Name: Joshua Wilmeth Date: __6____/__10____/__08___
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