Motivational interviewing (MI) is a collaborative approach to having a conversation about making a behavior change (Miller and Rollnick, 2013). While originally used to address problematic drinking, it has been used successfully with regard to other behavior changes, such as medication adherence (Palacio et al, 2016). The reaer is referred to Rollnick et al (2008) for an overview of applications in health-care settings.
Topic(s): Audiologist, Hearing Aids
As a new professional, I’ve had to learn how to become a clinical supervisor. While I learned the needed skills, I was fortunate to have very supportive, talented colleagues, as well as consistent contact from clinic coordinators at local universities.
It’s important that audiologists at all points in their career participate in the clinical supervision of AuD graduate students. New professional supervisors can offer a great deal to graduate students and their learning.
Here are some of the lessons that I’ve learned as I transitioned from student to supervisor.
Topic(s): Professional Development, Professional, Audiologist, American Board of Audiology (ABA)
The doctor of audiology (AuD) degree was developed to support a profession with a scope of practice that had outgrown its existing educational standards. Multiple professional associations, including the American Academy of Audiology, the American Speech–Language–Hearing Association, and the Academy of Dispensing Audiologists (later renamed the Academy of Doctors of Audiology) worked to define the expanding knowledge and skills expected of competent audiologists.
Topic(s): Audiologist, Education, Professional
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.
Topic(s): Audiologist, Audiogram, Bilateral Hearing Loss, Patient care
"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.
Topic(s): Audiologist, Hearing Loss, SAA - Student Academy of Audiology
The American Academy of Audiology (the Academy) and others recently requested revisions for codes and code descriptors in the CROS/BiCROS family and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services approved many of the proposed changes. The groups requested the changes to reflect changes in CROS/BiCROS technology.
Topic(s): Audiologist, Binaural, Behind The Ear (BTE), Bilateral microphones with contralateral routing of signal (BiCROS), Contralateral Routing of Signal (CROS), In The Ear (ITE), Hearing Aids, Coding, Reimbursement, Practice Management, Medicaid, Medicare, Fitting, Sensorineural Hearing Loss
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.
Topic(s): Hearing Assistive Technologies (HAT), Audiologist, Patient care
