| dc.description.abstract | Hearing is a complex sense that is paramount to a child’s cognitive, linguistic, and social development. In the United States, nearly 20 million people and 3 out of every 1,000 children are born deaf or hard-of-hearing every year. As of April 2009, 25,500 children in the United States have received cochlear implants (National Institute of Deafness and Communication Disorders, 2009). The cochlear implant is a surgically implanted device that bypasses the outer ear and is directly inserted into the cochlea. The implant electrically stimulates the auditory nerve fibers, which translate impulses into sound (Berg, Herb, & Hurst, 2005). This breakthrough technology was first approved for trial in 1985 and approved by the FDA for surgical implantation in children two years or older in 1990 (Berg et al., 2005). The invention of this device was viewed as a miracle by the medical community for the ability to cure the deaf. However, to the deaf community, the cochlear implant was a direct attack against deaf culture. With the use of cochlear implants, it is feared that the deaf way of life will disappear. Due to the success of implantation, the criteria have broadened to consider children as young as 18 months and at various testing centers, only 6 months (Berg et al., 2005). This puts parents in a unique position of deciding what is in the best interests of the deaf child. Pediatric nursing is likely to see an increase in patients undergoing cochlear implant surgery due to the rise in technology, and it is imperative for nurses to understand the implications, both physical and mental, of this controversial procedure.
This controversy has created an ethical dilemma between the deaf cultures ability to thrive, paternalism, and acting in the best interests of the child. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the implications of pediatric cochlear implantation. | en_US |
