By Julia P. Andrews
This article is a part of the July/August 2017, Volume 29, Number 4, Audiology Today issue.
Advances in technology and research have allowed the profession of audiology to grow and further expand its scope of practice. Despite the professional growth, the number of licensed audiologists has declined by 3.3 percent over the last eight years (Hosford-Dunn, 2017). This negative growth rate is due to there being fewer graduating audiologists than there are audiologists who are exiting the workforce, whether due to retirement, change of career, or otherwise (Windmill and Freeman, 2013).
The challenge then becomes how to effectively provide service to those seeking it. As of 2008, 34.25 million people in the United States reported having a hearing impairment (Kochkin, 2009) and that number is expected to grow to 41 million in 2025 (Kochkin, 2005). Those numbers do not take into account patients with dizziness, tinnitus, or auditory processing disorders who do not otherwise have hearing loss. Thus, demand for audiological care is increasing while the number of personnel capable of providing audiological services is declining. One proposed solution to this dilemma is to significantly increase use of audiology assistants.
Assistants have helped audiologists meet the ever-growing demand for audiological services for decades. They have been called many names. The Academy of Doctors of Audiology (ADA) and the American Speech–Language–Hearing Association (ASHA) call them “audiology assistants,” and, up until 2016, the Academy called them “audiology assistants” or “audiologist’s assistants.”
In 2016, the Academy started using the title “audiology technician” when referring to a membership category for assistants. Whether you call them “audiology assistant,” “audiologist’s assistant,” “technician,” or “support personnel” makes no difference in day-to-day operations; however, it does make a difference when trying to classify this job and set guidelines at the state level.
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