A Phenomenological Study: the Lived Experience of Persons Having a Different Sense of Hearing

Living with a different sense of hearing, including loss of hearing, is a worldwide phenomenon, known to be a silencing condition that can change persons' patterns of relating and divest effective ways of giving and receiving messages of sound. This research describes the meaning of this experience for 7 participants. The researcher followed Giorgi's descriptive phenomenological method for analysis-synthesis to arrive at a general structural description of the experience. Parse's theory of human becoming framed the researcher's theoretical perspective. Findings build on Parse's theory and may enhance nurses' understanding, in turn altering the way nurses approach persons having a different sense of hearing.