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AuDNet™ Helps Audiology Students Become Hearing Impairment and Balance Specialists

AuDNet encourages students seeking a career that makes a real difference in people's lives to consider the field of audiology. Hearing impairment adversely impacts people's lives and often causes both children and adults to suffer isolation and depression. Balance problems dramatically affect quality of life as well as put many individuals at serious risk for physical injury. By helping people overcome their hearing impairment and balance problems, an audiologist makes a significant contribution to patients, the community, and to society. Though the path to becoming an audiologist is not easy, the benefits, both personal and to those who receive the audiologist's care, are great. AuDNet provides exceptional support to audiology students while they are in school and after they become practicing audiologists. We are committed to helping students become successful independent audiologists so that they can help us maintain the integrity of the audiology field and protect every patient's right to quality care administered by a highly trained hearing care professional.

• The Requirements to Become an Audiologist
• Helping Audiology Students Become Independent Practitioners
• Important Benefits for Graduate Students
• Post-Graduate Assistance

The Requirements to Become an Audiologist

The education and training requirements to become an audiologist are quite extensive. Seven to eight years of college are necessary to become a Doctor of Audiology. All 50 states regulate audiologists through licensure or registration. Soon many states will require the Doctor of Audiology degree (Au.D.) for new audiologists to become licensed.

The coursework necessary to become an audiologist covers a broad range of subjects. A full spectrum of courses covers the pathology and treatment of balance and hearing impairment problems, comprehensive patient care, and the legal and business aspects of treating the balance and hearing impaired. Students must study auditory and vestibular systems to gain a thorough understanding of the anatomical structures related to hearing and balance. They take numerous diagnostic audiology courses covering subjects as diverse as infection control, psychoacoustic testing, clinical decision making, and several other areas. In other rigorous courses, audiology students must learn how to devise a hearing care plan that addresses all of the factors connected to a hearing impairment or balance problem, and they learn the various aspects of audiological rehabilitation so that they can provide total patient treatment. Students must also study the connections between audiological science and speech so that they can assist patients in improving their communication skills.

Audiology coursework also includes a full complement of courses covering audiological counseling and interpersonal skills so that students will be able to provide patients the personal care necessary to help patients deal with the emotional and psychological aspects of having a balance or hearing impairment. To help patients maintain their hearing, audiology students must study several courses covering the prevention of hearing loss and the conservation of hearing capabilities. So that students will be able to provide the skilled care necessary to prescribe, fit, and tune hearing instruments, they study a range of courses that deal with audiological instrumentation and electronics. Both audiology students and consumers should know that not all states require those who sell hearing aids to have an audiology degree or a college education.

Because an audiologist, especially an independent audiologist, must follow strict legal and ethical standards, comprehensive coursework covering legal, ethical, legislative, and forensic issues is required. In addition to being a care provider for the balance and hearing impaired, an audiologist is expected to be a business professional and leader regardless of the work setting, so every audiology student must take extensive coursework in professional, business, personnel, and leadership skills.

Following four years of undergraduate education, professional audiology training typically includes an additional three years of coursework plus one year of supervised residency before the Au.D. degree is awarded. The education and training requirements to become an audiologist seem daunting. In truth, they are. However, they demonstrate why patients of an AuDNet Audiologist receive the absolute best hearing and balance care available. The AuDNet Audiologist is a true hearing expert who has completed a difficult regimen of courses and has undergone extensive, strict training in order to provide patients the expert care they deserve.

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Helping Audiology Students Become Independent Practitioners

While pursuing their education and in their quest to help balance and hearing impaired patients overcome their problems, audiology students sometimes neglect to explore options that would let them accomplish their goals and remain independent while they achieve career and financial success. Upon graduation from an audiology program, students have several career paths available in a variety of settings. If you are a student nearing graduation, having your own audiology practice should be a prime consideration because you take control of your future, ensure that your hearing impaired patients receive the finest treatment, and provide yourself with the greatest earning potential.

AuDNet is committed to the future of audiology students and private-practice audiology care for the hearing impaired. By joining the AuDNet team, you become part of a family dedicated to the success of its members and to the future of audiology while always putting patient care first. You receive expert guidance and support both for offering the most effective solutions for helping the hearing impaired and for achieving personal and business success. And you become an important voice supporting the future of independent audiology.

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Important Benefits for Audiology Students

AuDNet can help you in several important ways even before you graduate from your audiology program and become a Doctor of Audiology. By taking advantage of these resources, you help ensure your future success as a Doctor of Audiology. AuDNet provides assistance with:

• Fourth-Year Practicum Site Placement: Gone are the days when audiology graduates began their first job as a clinical fellow (CFY), basically on-the-job training during the first 9 to 12 months of employment. Today's students are expected to hit the ground running from the day they are first employed. To help audiology students get vital, on-the-job experience before embarking on their career helping the hearing impaired, AuDNet offers students fourth-year practicum placement. You can register for this exceptional opportunity when you complete AuDNet's online Practice Buyer's Survey.
• Practical Education Programs: Because of continuing advances in the methodologies and technologies for treating the hearing impaired, audiologists must augment their education and become lifelong learners. Students who choose to go into private practice need entrepreneurial skills and business acumen. AuDNet offers a variety of excellent practical courses that include private practice marketing, private practice business accounting, cerumen management, and other courses geared toward advances in practical treatments for hearing impairment.
• Private-Practice Employment and Ownership: For the student who intends to join a private audiology practice and/or eventually own an independent private practice, AuDNet offers hiring assistance to new audiology graduates so they can find employment with practices owned by audiologists who want to transition ownership to a dedicated audiology professional. You can register to receive more information about this and other exciting opportunities by completing AuDNet's online Practice Buyer's Survey.

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Post-Graduate Assistance

AuDNet's commitment to help you help the hearing impaired will continue throughout your career as an audiologist. The many outstanding services AuDNet provides include:

• Assistance with financing when you buy your first practice and when you decide to expand your practice.
• AuDNet branded digital and analog hearing aids from top manufacturers at the best hearing aid prices so that you can ethically offer your hearing impaired patients top-quality products at exceptional savings.
• Nationwide buying power that reduces your costs for equipment, insurance, and employee benefits.
• Exceptional marketing templates for use in newspaper advertising, direct mail campaigns, and media relations programs. AuDNet's professional marketing and design team provides guidance in the most effective means for implementing the materials and can create customized advertising approaches that specifically address your market.
• Assistance in developing lasting referral relationships with area physicians for comprehensive care of your hearing impaired patients.
• An innovative Clinical Hearing Wellness and Hearing Preservation Program that allows you to position yourself in the marketplace as a provider of preventive care for the hearing impaired to help both children and adults avoid future hearing loss.
• Placement databases for assistance in locating and hiring professional staff when your practice is ready to expand.

By partnering with AuDNet, you gain a decided advantage in determining the extent of your success as an audiologist helping the hearing impaired and as an entrepreneurial businessperson. Contact AuDNet to learn more about placement assistance, extended hearing impairment education, and the variety of other opportunities and assistance available you. You can also find out more about the services AuDNet offers by visiting www.aud-net.com.

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