Audiology, Interprofessional Collaboration, and School Health Services

By Anne Heassler

This article is a part of the September/October 2018, Volume 30, Number 5, Audiology Today issue.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) encourages the use of the Whole School, Whole Community, Whole Child (WSCC) model for integrating health practices in the school setting (Lewallen et al, 2015). The WSCC model emphasizes a collaborative approach to improve student health and academic outcomes. The Whole Child element of the model maintains the child as the focal point through five tenets: (1) being healthy, (2) being safe, (3) being engaged, (4) being supported, and (5) being challenged. There are 10 school health services or programs for which the Whole School model focuses. These include health education, physical education, school health services, healthy and safe school environment, counseling, psychological, social services, family and community involvement, health promotion for staff, and nutrition services.

The WSCC model calls for collaborating with a variety of professionals and programs across the school setting to improve student physical, cognitive, social, and emotional development (Hunt et al, 2015). The call of the WSCC to work in collaborative teams for improved student outcomes supports the increasing demand for health professionals to work in interprofessional teams to improve patient outcomes (WHO, 2010).

Audiologists working in the school-based environment are called to participate in interprofessional collaborative practice by way of academic foundation and memberships to professional organizations. The Educational Audiology Association (EAA) Recommended Professional Practice for Educational Audiology (2009) outlines the minimum professional practice competencies for audiologists working in the school setting. In addition, the EAA also states that professional management, such as training and supervision of support personnel, and leadership include activities around raising public awareness and fostering collaboration between community-based audiologists and the school system.

The American Speech–Language–Hearing Association (ASHA) 2016 Schools Survey Summary Report: Numbers and Types of Responses, Educational Audiologists indicates specific challenges for providing educational audiology services. These challenges include budget constraints, large caseloads, paperwork, and limited understanding regarding the role of an educational audiologist. The current trends in educational audiology, specifically the barrier of the lack of understanding of the role of an educational audiologist, may be addressed by increasing collaborative practice in school health services programs.