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Case scenario 1...a 30-something audiologist completed a routine diagnostic assessment of a 35-year-old patient referred by her primary-care physician for rather vague complaints of inconsistent difficulty hearing in certain settings. 

The audiologist performed tympanometry, pure-tone audiometry, and phonetically-balanced (PB) word recognition testing at a comfortable loudness level. The patient’s history was unremarkable for any obvious etiologies or risks for hearing loss, although she enjoyed listening to loud music. 

"So what do you do?" I paused and thought of several different responses that were possible. I responded with a smile and three simple words, "I change lives."

Over the course of our careers, we are asked many times why we do what we do—sometimes we even ask ourselves that question. While there is a myriad of answers, some individuals have a personal experience with audiology that brought them to this profession. More and more students are entering the profession with hearing loss, and are excited for what the future has in store.

Great interviews don’t just happen. They have years of training behind them. While some people are naturally outgoing, have great interview instincts, and can pull off successful interviews with little training, that isn’t the case for most people. And, even after years of training, there are those who need constant work and still get jitters even after a lot of experience. 

As audiologists are well aware, even the highest levels of hearing aid technology fit to best practice standards (Academy, 2006; ASHA, 2006) fail to meet the daily listening demands of many patients with hearing loss (Lesner, 2003; Laplante-Levesque et al, 2013). Indeed, as Table 1 reveals, the degree of hearing deficit remaining post-hearing aid fitting can be substantial.