My dad suffered a stroke when I was in high school and part of his return to normalcy was working with a speech pathologist. I was fascinated by the process, and it led me to declare it as my major when I attended the University of Florida (UF) as an undergraduate. I was the first in my family to attend and graduate from college.
My curriculum and training in speech pathology intertwined with audiology, and I soon found myself drawn to its study instead. In the late 1990s, the doctor of audiology degree was still new, with few schools offering it. Upon graduation from UF, I entered an AuD program at the University of Louisville and completed my residency at the Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale. After eight years total of university learning, I graduated as Dr. Elizabeth (Liz) White.
My first decade as an audiologist took me all over the country where I met amazing patients and colleagues and learned about a variety of issues that affected their hearing and quality of life. My patients always treated me with the respect deserving of my training and expertise. When I introduced myself as “Dr. Liz White” it seemed to bring them ease. They hoped that I had the expertise to improve the quality of their hearing and their lives and I prided myself on filling that role.
As a young practitioner, however, I noticed a trend among co-workers. Receptionists, administrators, and even physicians in other fields would leave off the “Dr.” when addressing me. When specialists would refer patients to me, I was “our girl who handles hearing” or “our girl in the back.” My protests to call me by my proper title—the one I had worked so hard to earn—fell on deaf ears—pun intended. It seemed that my title was not real to anyone but myself and my patients.
Related Posts
Sound Check: Mapping Hearing Loss in the United States
The National Opinion Research Center (NORC) at the University of Chicago is nonpartisan a research organization that aims to provide objective social science and data…
New Study Reveals Prevalence of Bilateral Hearing Loss in United States
A new study published reveals the prevalence of bilateral hearing loss in the United States by severity, age, state, county, sex, ethnicity, and residency. Regarding…
Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia Performs First Gene Therapy Procedure to Treat Genetic Hearing Loss in United States
There are more than 150 different genes that have been identified as causing hearing loss. A rarer gene, the otoferlin (OTOF) gene, was identified in…