Program Implementer Responsibilities
The program implementer needs to ensure that presenters tailor education and motivation sessions to each particular group of employees and their supervisors. It is important to accurately describe the group's noise exposures, the group audiometric results, the options available to them with respect to hearing protection devices, and the engineering controls in place or planned for their department. Other topics may include progress reports on the status of specific elements of the hearing conservation program, comparisons of company-wide audiometric results, reports on the use of hearing protectors by department, and responses to questions or concerns expressed by employees. Materials should be updated every year. New multimedia materials such as interactive computer-based training may be considered for use.
Program implementers should ensure that films and pamphlets are used only as supplementary reinforcements for the live presentations, never as the whole program. Whenever possible, hands-on activities will facilitate learning. For example, workers can break into teams or small groups, and partners can help each other practice fitting various types of hearing protectors. Similarly, workers could initially break into small groups to brainstorm solutions to a particular noise problem in the plant, and then reconvene as a complete group to discuss the options and select a solution that is agreeable to the group. In this type of meeting, the program implementer would act as facilitator; guiding the workers through the various components of the meeting and coordinating the presentation of each group's suggestions.
Aside from formal educational presentations, program implementers should use every chance to remind employees and supervisors of the importance of the hearing conservation program and their active participation in it. One of the greatest opportunities to influence employee attitudes about hearing loss prevention occurs at the time of the annual audiometric test, when the program implementer or technician can compare the current thresholds to past results and check the fit and condition of hearing protection devices. Praise for employees with stable hearing and cautions for those with threshold shifts are effective if the comments come from a sincere and knowledgeable individual.
Contrary to the approach suggested above for promoting prevention behaviors, research has suggested that when faced with detecting a health problem that may have already occurred (i.e., discovering a hearing loss), workers may respond best at this time to health messages stressing what they have to gain by engaging in behaviors that will preserve their remaining good hearing. Program implementers in this situation should stress how employees can act to maintain their ability to hear music, voices, warning signals, etc.
In effective hearing conservation programs, the program implementers interact with employees more than just once a year. They ask questions and make comments about the hearing conservation program whether meeting workers on the plant floor or in the halls and cafeteria - wherever contact is made. The goal is to make the hearing conservation program a visible and ongoing concern.