Audiology Graduate Research Articles

Demographic Disparities in Drive Times to the Nearest Audiologist in the United States.

Audiological services are underused, possibly because patients need to drive long distances to see a provider. In this study, we measured the association of drive times to the nearest audiologist with population density, income, ethnicity, race, and distance to the nearest audiology graduate program. Drive times for each census block group to the nearest audiologist were measured using census data, the National Provider Identifier Registry, and a geographic analyzing tool called ArcGIS for all block groups within the United States. The association between drive times and population density, income, ethnicity, race, and audiology program distance was evaluated with a population density-matched case-control study and multiple linear regression analyses. Approximately 5.29 million Americans need to drive at least 1 hr to visit their closest audiologist. The 10% most rural-dwelling Americans drive an average of 33.8 min. The population density-matched case-control study demonstrated that percent below poverty, percent identifying as Hispanic, and travel times to the nearest audiology program were all significantly higher in census block groups with high drive times to the nearest audiologist. An average of 7.96% of individuals in census block groups with low drive times identified as Hispanic, but 18.8% identified as Hispanic in high drive time groups. The multiple linear regression showed that the effect of demographics and distance to the nearest audiology program was highest in rural areas. In both analyses, adjusting for poverty did not drastically change the effect of percent identifying as Hispanic on drive times. Long drive times restrict access to audiological care for those who live in rural areas. This restriction disproportionately affects those in rural areas who identify as Hispanic or have low income.

Can the Use of Art and Active Learning Improve Retention and Observational Skill Confidence Among Audiology Graduate Students

Can the Use of Art and Active Learning Improve Retention and Observational Skill Confidence Among Audiology Graduate Students

Transgender Health Care Primer for Clinical Audiologists

Transgender people have been increasingly visible in society. Recent research has indicated that millions of Americans, 0.7% of the total population, identify as transgender. Although transgender people experience all the same auditory and vestibular disorders as people who are not transgender, there is a dearth of information about transgender issues in audiology graduate education and continuing education. The author discusses their positionality as a transgender audiologist and provides guidance on working with transgender patients from their experience and from the published literature. This tutorial provides an overview of transgender identity for clinical audiologists and summarizes the social, legal, and medical landscape of transgender identity as it relates to audiology.

A Survey of Communication Sciences and Disorders Graduate Students' Perceptions of Critical Appraisal Skills

Research shows that prerequisite courses prepare students for participation in more challenging coursework and more advanced future learning. Despite being a field that heavily relies on research evidence to inform clinical decisions as part of evidence-based practice, many undergraduate Communication Sciences and Disorder (CSD) programs do not include prerequisite undergraduate coursework dedicated to research methods. The purpose of the present study was to explore speech-language pathology and audiology graduate students’ experiences with and opinions about critical appraisal of research articles. A total of 201 graduate students from institutions nationwide completed an online survey with questions related to exposure to research appraisal, use of an appraisal tool, and perspectives on the importance of research appraisal and confidence in appraisal skills. Results indicated that nearly one-third of the respondents did not learn or could not remember learning about article appraisal in their undergraduate CSD programs, though almost all survey respondents reported that they had learned about article appraisal in their graduate classes. Over half of the students used an article appraisal tool to bolster their learning of article critiques, almost all of whom found it helpful. Most of the respondents recognized the importance of article appraisal knowledge prior to graduate school but suggested that many of their undergraduate instructors did not place importance on the skill. Respondents’ confidence in their article appraisal skills ranged from “least confident” to “most confident”. This study supports early and ongoing practice with article appraisal, which will provide these future clinicians with the confidence to communicate their knowledge and understanding when making evidence-informed clinical decisions. Additionally, instructors who teach article appraisal may consider using a hands-on appraisal tool since almost all students with experience using them believe they are helpful.

Graduate Audiology Education and Student Perspectives on Over-the-Counter Hearing Aid Devices

Purpose: While hearing care professions recently submitted commentary about proposed regulatory guidelines for over-the-counter (OTC) hearing aids, educational considerations were not highlighted much. This article examines audiology education regarding OTC devices, specifically addressing how graduate curricula may incorporate the topic and examining graduate audiology students' perspectives on proposed OTC regulations. Graduate audiology curricula include a wide breadth of core classes and several specialized courses. The topic of OTC devices may fit well within graduate coursework focused on Professional Issues, Public Health, or Practice Management. This article presents the curricular option implemented at a mid-Atlantic university, including a brief course description, module overview for the OTC topic, and two related assignments. Graduate audiology training with a public health focus will generally address the core functions, assessment, policy, and assurance, which facilitates a topic such as OTC devices. This educational framework also optimized the examination of graduate students' views by qualitative analysis of assignment responses ( n = 21) from audiology students. Thematic analysis of data revealed four themes with respective subthemes and categories. Major themes are examined in a discussion highlighting the perspectives of audiology graduate students. Conclusions: Regular teaching course audits facilitate curricular changes and may incorporate professional topics that are new, controversial, and/or in the development phase to optimize audiology curricular transformation. Analyzing student perspectives on current topics, such as OTC devices, provided an avenue for immersing public health audiology concepts into graduate training with an overall goal to improve equity and inclusion in clinical practice. The topic of OTC devices was appropriate for educating future audiologists.

The Effectiveness of Near-Peer Mentoring and Clinical Laboratory Experiences in Undergraduate Student Perceptions of Career Preparedness and the Profession of Audiology

Students in undergraduate Communication Sciences and Disorders (CSD) programs with an interest in audiology often report feeling unprepared to make career and graduate school decisions due to a lack of exposure to the field. The present study examines the impact of near-peer mentoring and hands-on lab experiences on undergraduate student perceptions of career preparedness and of the profession of audiology by examining pre- and post-course survey responses and lab wrapper responses of 41 undergraduate speech and hearing science majors enrolled in an introductory audiology course. Students were paired in groups with a first-year audiology graduate mentor to walk through a series of three clinical lab exercises. Results showed a positive influence on perceptions of career readiness resulting from both mentoring and clinical lab exposure, and more confidence in career decisions following the course.

The Development and Implementation of ALIGN: A Multidimensional Program Designed to Enhance the Success of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) Graduate Students in Communication Sciences and Disorders

The critical lack of racially and ethnically diverse healthcare professionals in the field of Communication Sciences & Disorders (CSD) in contrast to the increasing diversity of the U.S. population may contribute to healthcare disparities and negatively impact healthcare outcomes. It is therefore imperative for transformational programs and practices to be enacted to substantially increase the number of CSD professionals representing Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC). As training institutions that graduate and contribute to the certification of CSD professionals, universities are fundamental for contributing to this change. Numerous barriers have been identified that limit the number of underrepresented minority students who matriculate in and graduate from speech-language pathology and audiology graduate programs. At Syracuse University, a group of academic and clinical CSD faculty developed a program to specifically address these barriers: the Academic Skill Building and Networking (ALIGN) program. ALIGN implements a multifaceted approach toward facilitating the success of CSD BIPOC graduate students through the integration of academic and professional skill building, peer mentoring and networking, and professional mentoring and networking into the program curriculum. This study described the rationale and development of the ALIGN program, and reported quantitative and qualitative survey results to determine the preliminary effects of this program on an inaugural cohort of ALIGN participants. Overall, quantitative and qualitative data indicated that ALIGN had a substantial, positive impact on academic skills relative to study habits, understanding difficult course concepts, and general learning, and provided crucial support and connection opportunities with fellow BIPOC students.

Effectiveness of Simulation Training on Graduate Audiology Students' Auditory Brainstem Response Testing Skills.

Purpose Simulation is a tool commonly used in the clinical training of students within the health professions fields, such as medicine and nursing. The effectiveness of simulation as a teaching technique has been extensively documented in numerous health care professions; however, little is known about the effectiveness of simulation techniques in audiology education. This study assesses the effectiveness of a simulation activity focused on auditory brainstem response (ABR) testing conducted with students of an applied doctoral program in audiology. Method Twelve 2nd year audiology graduate students enrolled in the auditory electrophysiology course at Towson University in Fall 2018 participated in this pre-post study. Over a 3-week period, each student (a) received didactic instruction in ABR testing, (b) underwent a presimulation exercise skills assessment, (c) participated in a simulation exercise, and (d) underwent a postsimulation exercise skills assessment. Results Significant improvements were observed in clinical skill level for the ABR tasks evaluated in terms of both accuracy and efficiency (time in seconds needed to complete the task). The tasks evaluated included skin preparation, identification of scalp electrode placement sites, and scalp electrode placement in a variety of configurations (single- and two-channel arrays, horizontal and vertical electrode montages). Benefits associated with simulation-based instruction varied by clinical skill as well as by student. Conclusions The data described in this study reinforce the need to incorporate simulation in audiology training programs, especially for complex clinical skills. It also emphasizes the need for additional research that can be useful in the design and implementation of simulation-based exercises.

An Evaluation of Simulation Techniques in Audiology and Allied Health Professions.

Purpose This study aims to investigate the experiences and opinions of clinical educators from various allied health care fields, including audiology, related to the use of simulation as a teaching technique and determine the status of clinical simulation techniques in training audiology graduate students nationwide. Method An interview was conducted with nine faculty members in the College of Health Professions at Towson University to discuss advantages and challenges of incorporating clinical simulation techniques into student learning. A thematic analysis was used to analyze the interview responses. Additionally, a web-based questionnaire was sent to all audiology graduate program directors nationwide, yielding a response rate of 63%. These data were analyzed using descriptive statistics. Results Interview responses revealed a number of benefits and barriers related to simulation use at the graduate level. Benefits included its use as a learning tool, a quality control measure, and an aid in professional development. It also increases students' confidence levels in clinical procedures and counseling skills and exposes them to a variety of clinical pathologies not routinely seen. Barriers included lack of training with simulators, lack of funding to purchase simulator technology, and lack of resources, such as time and space. At present, only 50% of audiology program directors reported using clinical simulation to train their students. Conclusions The field of audiology is embracing simulation techniques in training its preprofessional work force. To date, there has been limited guidance from professional organizations regarding the role of simulation in audiology. Additional assistance focusing on best practices for these techniques is warranted.

Survey of Audiology Graduate Programs: Training Students in Tinnitus Management.

Purpose Although tinnitus is highly prevalent among patients receiving audiology services, the extent to which most audiologists are trained in tinnitus management is not well documented. The extent and type of instruction in tinnitus clinical care provided by audiology graduate (AuD) programs is not clear, nor is it known whether training programs are consistent in their recommendations. It is certainly true that widely accepted standards do not exist to ensure that all tinnitus clinical services are supported by adequate scientific evidence, which may result in unsatisfactory outcomes and unnecessary expense for patients. The purpose of this clinical focus article is to describe the results of an informal survey of AuD programs to determine their level of training for tinnitus management. Method A short survey was sent to all 75 American Speech-Language-Hearing Association-accredited AuD programs to assess the extent and type of tinnitus training their students receive. Conclusions The 32 AuD programs that responded to our survey provide tinnitus training using a variety of settings and methods. Further research could explore in more detail the extent of training in specific methods provided by these programs, and aim to elicit responses from a greater number of programs and from the students themselves.

Accessible Audiology Education, Part 3: Impact of Hearing Loss on Motivation and Self-Efficacy of AuD Students

Accessible Audiology Education, Part 3: Impact of Hearing Loss on Motivation and Self-Efficacy of AuD Students

Civic Responsibility and Global Health Care: Audiology Service Learning in Africa

PurposeMany health professions engage service learning via international humanitarian health care or study abroad programs toward an improved sense of civic responsibility, an aspect that has been inadequately analyzed in hearing health care. The purpose of this study is to evaluate how the curriculum of an international humanitarian health care program in South Africa influenced U.S. graduate students' civic responsibility and their educators' perspectives on audiology study abroad service learning programs.MethodParticipants (n= 14) in this study abroad program included seven female graduate audiology students, five community partners, and two educators. Quantitative data were derived from pre- and postprogram administration of the Public Affairs Scale (Levesque-Bristol & Cornelius-White, 2012). Qualitative data sources included student journals, student exit interview, educator field notes and discussions, and responses to the community partner evaluation survey completed by host site personnel.ResultsA comparison of pre- and postprogram Public Affairs Scale ratings revealed that students demonstrated a significant increase in community engagement, cultural competence, and ethical leadership. Qualitative data revealed themes referenced to practitioners, clients, and context. Further thematic analysis identified three key results including foregrounding health as a development of people, educators and students as critically oriented public intellectuals, and global dialogue for pedagogic (audiology) justice.Discussion and ConclusionCarefully designed study abroad curricular contributed to audiology graduate students' increased service learning, civic responsibility, and civic engagement. Quantitative and qualitative analyses revealed that student service learning experiences were mediated by resources and people in the local context. This study abroad curriculum facilitated educators' thinking regarding the placement of audiology health services and audiology educational models in a globalized world. Health professional pedagogic considerations should be designed for humanitarian health care so that service learning focuses the production of critically oriented practitioners who are competent at enacting practices in global service learning programs.

Strategies for Increasing Counseling Competencies Among Audiology Graduate Clinicians: A Viewpoint.

Purpose This article aimed to review and discuss relevant literature regarding counseling training strategies among audiology graduate clinicians. Conclusions From the literature, five studies have explored the effectiveness of specific counseling training strategies among audiology graduate clinicians. Evidence regarding the strength of the training strategies used is minimal, and future research is warranted to define counseling in audiology in a way that is tangible and measurable.

Challenges and Successes of an Audio-Technician Training Program in Guatemala.

Hearing healthcare outreach in developing countries is ill defined and inundated with sustainability challenges. One method to facilitate sustainable efforts is by training local personnel on certain aspects of hearing healthcare. The purpose of this descriptive study was to identify the challenges and successes of an audio-technician training program conducted in various regions throughout Guatemala. A collaboration was created between Healing the Children, Centro de Audicion, the University of Washington, and Gallaudet University to create a learning environment for Guatemalan audio-technicians and audiology graduate students. Administration of the audio-technician training component of this program began in 2008 and continues today. Challenges and successes were identified around five themes: (1) audio-technician recruitment and skills upon entering training program; (2) practical and logistical components of clinical training; (3) collaboration and resources for ongoing care; (4) funding for travel, time, and accommodation for personnel involved in training sessions; and (5) cultural differences surrounding our approach to hearing healthcare and training. Approaches to overcome the barriers identified and future directions are discussed.

Canine and Hearing Support Open Up an Audiology Career for a Student Who Is Deaf

You have accessThe ASHA LeaderFirst Person on the Last PageJanuary–February 2020Canine and Hearing Support Open Up an Audiology Career for a Student Who Is DeafWith a service dog and cochlear implants, a student born deaf tackles the rigors of an AuD program. Lauren Armstrong Lauren Armstrong Google Scholar More articles by this author https://doi.org/10.1044/leader.FPLP.25012020.72 SectionsAboutPDF ToolsAdd to favorites ShareFacebookTwitterLinked In As I sit here, an audiology graduate student who uses cochlear implants, I realize that life presents everybody with sets of different challenges that shape who you are today. I was born into a world of silence. I didn’t hear the sounds of the machines taking my vitals or my parents’ voices speaking loving words to me. Everything was silent, empty, and unknown, until a device was surgically implanted into my inner ear at the age of 2-1/2. Then my world filled with sounds, roaring noises, and beeps. To get to where I am today, I received speech-language intervention as a young girl at the University of Tennessee (UT)—inside Neyland Stadium, where the clinic was located—to learn to speak. I worked to overcome challenges as I tackled how to live in a hearing world with cochlear implants. For example, some people would deliberately cover their mouths or turn their back to me during conversations, and some professors refused to allow my accommodations, saying that I’m not intelligent enough to accomplish anything in life. I found solutions, experimenting with the programming of my cochlear implant and physically manipulating the device to meet my athletic needs. I participated in track, soccer, horseback riding, and dance, and I needed the implant to not fly off my ear. My dad and I put tubing around the bottom of my implant and sewed the tubing into my ear hook to keep it from sliding off from sweat. I was always interested in the programming changes made to my implant—the process itself and why a particular selection was made. And while attending mainstream schools as a kid, I was always interested in math and science. But audiology was not my first choice of field when I was deciding on my future: I originally wanted to become a physician’s assistant while I majored in neuroscience here at UT. Since becoming more accepting of myself and my hearing loss, I have been fully intrigued by the field and cannot get enough of it. I have always wanted to show people who are hard of hearing and deaf that they can achieve anything that they want, and that their hearing loss need not hold them back. I do this daily by advocating for myself and others when available accommodations fail to provide full access to communication, sharing the beautiful American Sign Language through my Painted Pansy Shop on Etsy, and bringing awareness to Canine Companions for Independence hearing service dogs. My service dog, Elroy, alerts me to sounds I can’t hear, even with my cochlear implants. I need him to be able to live independently, especially when I don’t have my implants on. He helps alert me to people calling my name or any other important sounds I might miss. My ultimate goal is to specialize in pediatrics and cochlear implants. I want to show every patient that they can do anything they want, and that hearing loss is not a barrier to success and does not define them. I am eager to see what the future holds as I dive deeper into the field that changed my life at such a young age. Author Notes Lauren Armstrong is a first-year student in the AuD program at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center. [email protected] Advertising Disclaimer | Advertise With Us Advertising Disclaimer | Advertise With Us Additional Resources FiguresSourcesRelatedDetails Volume 25Issue 1January–February 2020 Get Permissions Add to your Mendeley library History Published in print: Jan 1, 2020 Metrics Current downloads: 854 Topicsasha-topicsleader_do_tagasha-article-typesleader-topicsCopyright & Permissions© 2020 American Speech-Language-Hearing AssociationPDF downloadLoading ...

Audiologists and Tinnitus

Purpose Although tinnitus is highly prevalent among patients receiving audiology services, audiologists are generally untrained in tinnitus management. Audiology graduate programs, as a rule, do not provide comprehensive instruction in tinnitus clinical care. Training programs that do exist are inconsistent in their recommendations. Furthermore, no standards exist to prevent the delivery of unvetted audiologic services, which can be expensive for patients. Patients seeking professional services by an audiologist, therefore, have no basis upon which to be assured they will receive research-based care. The purpose of this article is to describe the current status of tinnitus management services that exist within the general field of audiology and to suggest specific approaches for improving those services. Conclusion Audiologists may be in the best position to serve as the primary health care providers for patients experiencing tinnitus. Tinnitus care services by audiologists, however, must achieve a level of evidence-based standardization.

Promoting Counseling Skills in Audiology Clinical Supervisors: Considerations for Professional Development.

Purpose Clinical supervision for counseling skill development can be variable and can undermine student ability to learn patient-centered care communication. The current study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of consultation and feedback sessions on counseling behavior, in actual clinical practice, among clinical audiology supervisors. We also collected qualitative data on participants' experiences and suggestions for improving the counseling intervention to increase counseling communication in audiology graduate training programs. Method We used a noncurrent multiple baseline design and staggered the counseling intervention to control for effects of concurrent events and passage of time. Results Two participants showed small but reliable increases in counseling behavior, whereas the 3rd participant showed bigger but less stable increases in counseling. Participants reported that brief feedback sessions were helpful; however, they also mentioned barriers to counseling, such as worries with how much time counseling could take when they have back-to-back appointments. Conclusion Clinical audiology supervisors were able to improve their counseling skills in real-life sessions with regular feedback. More structure may be needed to strengthen future counseling skills.

Teaching Counseling Skills in Audiology Graduate Programs: Clinical Supervisors' Perceptions and Practices.

Counseling is a critical component within audiological service delivery. Partnering with patients to support them in learning to effectively cope with their hearing challenges is a key component in achieving desired outcomes. Even though there is agreement on the foundational role counseling plays in audiology service delivery, counseling instruction varies among audiology training programs. The purpose of this study was to investigate the perspectives and practices of supervisors in audiology graduate training programs related to mentoring students in the acquisition of counseling skills. A cross-sectional design was used; participants completed a self-report survey. The survey was sent to 323 clinical supervisors in AuD graduate programs in the United States. Completed surveys were received from 205 supervisors. Responses were analyzed using descriptive statistics to identify practice trends. Participants reported their perceptions about importance of teaching counseling skills to audiology students, their confidence in teaching skills, their self-efficacy for supporting student learning, how they provide feedback to students, and challenges they encounter. Most participants reported their program requires a counseling course (88%; n = 176). Most of the participants reported confidence in teaching counseling skills; however, fewer reported being very or extremely confident in teaching students how to talk with clients about their emotions (53%; n = 109) and explaining the rationale behind specific counseling strategies (47%; n = 97). Participants with more years of supervisory experience had statistically significantly higher self-ratings for teaching confidence and self-efficacy for supporting student learning in counseling than those with fewer years of experience. Audiology supervisors in AuD programs believe counseling is important to teach to students; however, they report variability in use of methods for providing feedback, evaluating student performance, and in their self-efficacy for supporting student learning. Future audiologists would benefit from a more systematic approach within graduate training for teaching counseling skills.

Audiology Faculty Author Impact Metrics as a Function of Institution.

The purpose of this study was to develop a method for the assessment of audiology author impact as a function of institution and compare these results to a recent college ranking of audiology graduate programs. Scopus author impact metrics (i.e., number of documents, number of citations, and h index) from a previous study (Stuart, Faucette, & Thomas, 2017) were generated for 79 accredited graduate programs in audiology in the United States and Canada. Author impact metrics were summed to represent the total institution output, and median values were calculated to reflect a measure of central tendency of individual faculty performance. Three hundred and seventy-nine audiology faculty members were identified and of those 86.0% (n = 326) were found in Scopus. Database presence increased with increasing rank (p = .003). Scopus index values were positively skewed. The total summed number of documents, citations, and h indices were positively correlated with the total number of faculty in the institutions and with the summed number of coauthors (p < .001). The median number of documents, citations, and h indices were not significantly correlated with the total number of faculty in the institutions but were positively correlated with the median number of coauthors (p < .001). In general, indices were higher for research/doctoral versus nonresearch universities. Higher college program rankings were statistically related with better Scopus index values. These institutional metrics may be used to serve as a benchmark for institutional production, attracting students, hiring faculty, and assessing allocation of institutional funding.

Audiology Awareness of Undecided College Students

Audiology Awareness of Undecided College Students