Clinical Practicum in the On-Campus Clinic
In our program, graduate students are initially immersed in the on-campus clinic. During this time, typically the first year of our 4-year program, students are enrolled in a clinical practicum course which provides them with hands-on clinical experiences. Student clinicians evaluate and treat patients under the supervision of licensed and accredited clinical audiology faculty members. The patient population served at our Speech and Hearing Center ranges in age from 1 year to 100 years. Services provided by our clinic include basic diagnostic audiometry, evoked potentials, evaluation and treatment of APD, and dispensing of amplification devices including PSAPs and hearing aids.
Accompanying the hands-on course work in clinic there are opportunities for learning through:
- Simulation with standardized patients during which time a layperson (or faculty member as the case may be) is recruited and trained to portray an actual patient within a clinical setting.
- Grand Rounds occur at a regular weekly meeting during which cases are presented to and by student clinicians, clinical educators, and other medical and allied health professionals, followed by a discussion of each case.
- We also provide students with exercises in case studies where they are expected to apply their developing clinical skills to examine, analyze, and discuss problems related to a given case.
Clinical Practicum during Off-Campus Practica
As student clinicians mature and move into their 2nd and 3rd years of the program, they are placed at audiology sites in the surrounding community for semester-long off-campus experiences and come into contact with a diverse array of supervisors and practice settings. In our community, we are fortunate to have pediatric specialty clinics for audiology, private practice hearing aid dispensing practices, ENT offices, Tinnitus treatment experts, Cochlear implant surgeons and audiologists, hospital settings, long term care facilities, vestibular rehabilitationists, occupational audiologists, hearing conservationists and teleaudiology practitioners. There is a rich environment for learning an abundance of practical clinical skill.
Clinical practicum hours earned as an undergraduate student can be counted, provided the practicum hours are properly documented and certified by an ASHA credentialed clinical supervisor at the institution from which they were earned.
Audiology Externship
In the 4th year externship, which is a year-long placement, students are assisted in locating an audiology clinical opportunity which will enhance and refine the skill set they need to become full-fledged young professionals. These clinical residencies can occur in a hospital setting, a private practice, an ENT office, or any combination of these. We have had externs work with audiologists at Gallaudet and the Marion Downs Center, at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Center, at the Henry Ford Foundation, at busy ENT offices with multiple locations, etc., etc.
Completion of the Knowledge and Skill Acquisition (KASA) is expected by the end of the AuD program.