Does the involvement of first-year residents have a negative impact on the performance of a newborn hearing screening program?

Objectives We aimed to evaluate the efficiency of our hearing screening program, prior to hospital discharge, together with the consistency of our teamwork including first year residents by assessing a learning curve for the operators involved. Methods We evaluated all the data collected during the first stage of the screening program of all non-NICU neonates from March 2009 to July 2013, analyzing by means of a linear regression model, the monthly referral rate for the whole period of activity of each group of residents. Results performances of each group of screeners were statistically different (chi square test p < 0.005). The nptrend test showed that group 2 (p = 0.01) and group 4 (p = 0.01) reached a statistical significance in higher and lower referral rates respectively. No statistical differences were found in other groups (Group 1 p = 0.161; Group 3 p = 0.853). Conclusion Despite a statistically significant difference in the performances between the groups of residents, the referral rates for each group (range 6.18%–9.29%) and the overall referral rate for the whole period (7.84%) agree with the values commonly reported for TEOAEs in the literature. It means that our screening program is reasonably effective despite a yearly turnover of operators.