Hinderance of Lip reading and speech perception

 Good evening Everyone,

I decided to write my next post on speech perception and lip reading since they work hand and hand together. I work for Deborah Heart and Lungs specialty Physicians as a Certified Medical assistant. My duties and responsibilities are to update patients medical records and perform EKG's daily on  the patients. I feel like it's a must, I collaborate on how difficult it has been lately to perform my job duties due to Mask requirements. Wearing a mask consistently in the office has created a barrier for the patient and I to communicate.

First and foremost the mask is hindering us from seeing a smile. We all know at times going to the doctors can be a little scary and who would not love to see a bright big beautiful  smile upon entering a doctors office. Smiles alter moods from scary to secure and smiles are expressions of personality such as happy and give the ability to enlighten someone's day.

Not to mention wearing a mask hinder our ability to lip read each other's lips. In the book See What I'm Saying by Rosenblum pg. 245 lip reading enhances the speech we hear. Lip reading influences your auditory brainstem. Which allows the communicators to understand one another easier. Hiding this sense behind a mask is an indication of the challenges and frustration  the healthcare care workers  have to adjust to and endure because one doesn't realize how difficult it is to perform your job duties when you're stripped of an extraordinary power of our five sense such as lip reading and speech perception. Through this chapter 10 it helps me recognize the barriers we are up against and provide me knowledge to work through them until this world gets back to normalcy. I can't wait for the mask to be uplifterd for health care workers. So our patient will not only hear us speak but feel us as well.