After months of a patient verbally abusing my staff, I finally set boundaries. I professionally let them know that if they can’t refrain from using profanity or raising their voice at clinic staff, they are no longer welcome at our center and can receive services elsewhere.

This was huge for me, as I am naturally a people pleaser, and have never stood up to / fired a patient in the 7 years I’ve been fitting hearing aids.

I’m sure many of you can relate, but along with feeling empowered I also I feel guilty. I, like most of us, got into this field to help people, so it just feels fundamentally wrong to refuse services. Ultimately, I know I made the right decision, but I still feel bad.

Anyone care to share how they’ve handled difficult / aggressive patient interactions?

Haa anyone done locum work for spacsavers? It's something that I've been looking at but it seems to be lacking information on clinical requirements such as type of hearing aids fit, job responsibilities and what they do or don't do in the fitting process (click and fit, rem, predicted etc)

I haven't done a locum shift her but is this all explained when you turn up on the day or any other information in advance?

Hi! I’m currently working as a hearing aid dispenser in Italy and I’m looking to brush up on my audiology skills.

Do you have any good books recommendations on the topic? I’m looking at “Handbook of Clinical Audiology” by Jack Katz PhD but I’m afraid it might have outdated information seeing as it’s a 2017 book. I’m also looking at Browning’s Audiology for Clinicians and that looks more up to date.

Incidentally if you have any recommendations on books about hearing aids I’d be grateful. I already own “Hearing Aids” by Harvey Dillon.

Thank you!

Western-US crew: anybody ever used Brewer Medical Solutions for your annual calibrations? I’ve had it up to my eyeballs with E3 and would dearly love an alternate solution. I’m not in CA, but I am in the service zone.

If not, who is your go-to for calibrations?

I recently graduated with a BA in modern languages here in the UK, and have decided that I would like to try and get into a career helping people. I thought audiology would be a relevant field and it looks like a fascinating field. I would love to get into it through an apprenticeship, but the only program that has accepted me is the BSc at Southampton University. Apprenticeships also seem kind of few and far between and Specsavers has rejected me a bunch of times for eg. optical assistant roles and one audiology traineeship. I did have a day of work experience my local hospital kindly gave me but that's it. Do you have any advice? Should I commit to the BSc? This seems really tough.

Thank you for any help!

I'm interested in potentially becoming an audiologist but don't have the funds to pay for a qualification. I've worked with the Deaf community for many years and I'd like a better-paying career in all honesty without my previous experience going to waste.

I've been looking at applying for an Audiology Assistant role in the NHS and working my way up from there.

To anyone with experience of this route: how fast did you progress to being qualified and/or being more highly paid?

I lost my hearing at the age of 3 and grew up with bilateral sensorineural hearing loss. However, thanks to speech therapy and the use of hearing aids I grew up being able to communicate coherently and hear though not always perfect. I rely on speaking and don’t use asl (though I am learning it now) and I work in customer service at my job but I know I am always going to have hearing loss. I really feel passionate about this field and want to pursue a career in it but I’m wondering how I can manage to work my way around it having hearing loss and performing tasks like hearing tests where audiologists have to use headphones or other tools where they use their ears to listen to the devices to ensure they work properly. For anyone who has hearing loss that is pursuing or trying to pursue this field, how do you or did you navigate it? Any advice would help and be greatly appreciated!

• My goal is to make somewhere in the high five figures area, and more if possible.

Hello all, I have a bachelors in communication disorders and have been working as a slpa for 5 years in the home health setting. I’ve become recently more interested in audiology after having a few patients with hearing aids and deaf/hard of hearing. I took basic audiology and aural rehab for my bachelors but that’s all the experience I have really. My main question is how much weight is put on professor recommendations? I haven’t been in school in almost 6 years now and I’m not sure if my audiology professor remembers me by now. Any advice before looking into applying to graduate programs?

Hello! I am wondering when the best time is to apply or look for jobs during the externship year? I am ~6 months away from graduation and will be moving to a different state. I would ideally like to have something set up before I move, but I won’t be licensed until post-graduation. Can I apply to a job before obtaining my degree, or do places prefer to wait?

Just so everyone knows Oticons Ototherm earmolds are expected to last only ONE YEAR!!!!
We’ve had 2 split right in half in the past few weeks so I emailed my rep and she said it’s a delicate material and if I want something with more longevity to order acrylic!!!
If they know it’ll only last a year they should let people know or discontinue it like the variotherm 🤦‍♀️
My patients are NOT going to be happy about being expected to purchase a new EM 1 year after spending $$$$ on their hearing aids!!!

Hey everyone,

I'm considering applying to audiology school and I would love to hear your thoughts on why you became an Audiologist.

Hi, I am currently a student searching for externships. I am struggling choosing between placements, one of them seems like a great work environment and has good pay and is in a great location but doesn’t offer cochlear implant or vestibular services. Someday, I would like to further explore vestibular and cochlear implants. I know practicing these skills during externship is the ideal time, but will there be other opportunities later in my career to learn? If I choose this externship without these services, do you think my future options will be limited?

Thank you for your input and advice!

I’m struggling to find any form of evidence to support a working theory I have that a person is able to make changes to diet/lifestyle/other factors that affect the quantity of cerumen production. This is aside from the obvious and known factors such as hearing aid use/diet or dust exposure/acoustic coupler parameters of their hearing aids/earplug use/Q-tip use/weather patterns (summer heat vs winter cold) etc etc etc.

Specifically I’m thinking diet and also general systemic inflammatory responses from potentially unknown issues such as gluten intolerance.

Background: cerumen management is a large part of my practice and I’ve noticed with some of my non-hearing aid wearing patients that are overachievers in cerumen production that they’ll go through cycles some times. I have had some who become occluded after just a few weeks or a month and then after years with that schedule will taper off and only require removal after 6 months or maybe a year, but then again start to increase production again. This is with no change to their own management routine (oil use, self-irrigation, q-tip/Bobbi pin/car keys/welding rods/amazon purchased scoops/firecrackers/any other form of evil device that’s smaller than an elbow or in some cases larger than an elbow).

Does anyone know of any credible research that might offer a hint that could be a practical option for the excess producers to try?

Didn’t want to break the rules by posting a job but actually genuinely curious as to where the good job boards are for audiologists.

Essentially had an interview where I was asked a test box vs REM question, where the interviewer asked me to talk about relationships between REUG REIG and REAG etc... I have been practicing for a long time and admittedly you start to just follow procedures without thinking about the basic theory behind it. I blanked out and really should have admitted that I am rusty on the topic (probably wouldn't look good but sure would look better than making stuff up).

GAH

Hey! I'm 44, have been doing my current job for 10 years and am losing it to AI (knew it would happen just thought I'd have more time). I'm thinking of going to school to become a hearing aid practitioner, but my mother-in-law seems to think it will be taken over by AI too. How likely will it be to lose my job to AI within the 15-20 years before I plan to retire?

What's the audiologist opinion?

Interesting day today...my front office person, came in and asked me if I knew what Stigmata was...I instantly perked up and told her "Yesss.." and "Why?"

"Your next patient says he's been diagnosed with it.."

Well, this is A GREAT START TO THE DAY!!

I had immediate thoughts of bloody eyes or bloodied palms...and I wondered what kind of 'effing Doctor diagnoses people with Stigmata...and then I thought, why on earth is he hear to see me about hearing aids???

So, my patient walks in and has no signs of immediate Stigmata, but deep down I am hoping I will soon see blood squirting from his eyes or hands.

He tells me he has recently seen a Doctor and he has been diagnosed with "Stigmata...ism"

"...OK, I'm sorry...What were you diagnosed with again please?" I asked.

"Stigmata...ism, it affects my vision.." He seemed embarrassed by it and the diagnosis really seemed to affect him.

I told him I had some information for him... I then printed out 2 sheets of paper. The first one had the word Astigmatism and its short definition, the second one had the word Stigmata and a brief description with a few small pics.

There was a small pause as he glanced back and forth between the two sheets of paper...he looked up at me and said...."Shit..., all those Nurses must think I'm a whack job now.."

I told him I was really disappointed, because I was hoping he was going to spurt blood at some point during our appointment...he laughed at that, but he was still pretty embarrassed that he had told a few Nurses that he has the wounds of Christ and it affects his vision.

He did end up getting hearing aids...

Hi all,

Just looking for some feedback / critique for an ongoing Industrial Design project. I am working on some earplugs, and one of our concepts we're quite interested in would include a clever audio engineering tech application.

Do you think it would it be possible to create a silicone earplug with a solid core / end, which has small perforations in it that would allow sound to come in and be cancelled with a Helmholtz Resonation Chamber? I would specifically be looking for a 2-5 decibel reduction in the 4-8khz region.

If my math is correct, I would only need a very small amount of internal chamber volume, and tiny holes to make it work.

The core would likely be DLP printed with strong resin, and the silicone earplug would either be overmoulded or connected in some other way.

What should I keep in mind if I pursue this concept? Thanks for your feedback / ideas!

I'm a first year AuD student and have a lab skills check on Tuesday for otoscopy and earmold impressions. I've struggled with getting the otoblock not to roll (this is improving) and bracing while injecting the impression material. My hand hurt a lot while using the syringe but it's hurt less the more I practice. Sometimes the material gets wormy but I've started smoothing it out with a tongue depressor before marking a horizontal line or using my gloved hands to smooth it out. I mostly practice on mannequins as we aren't allowed to practice on human ears without instructor supervision - we have a 2 hour lab every week. Any tips on the above issues?

I work at the VA, so I can fit Phonak, Oticon, Starkey, Resound, and Signia. I do not like Signia or Resound hearing aids. Also, we have to downsize our stock in our clinic since we lost clinic space. For my veterans in Signia or Resound, which of the other manufacturers are going to be the most similar? I prefer to fit Phonak, are there ways I can transition a veteran to a Phonak (I know they tend to be “aggressive”).