Case studies : Audiologist: Dawn

Dawn completed her degree in audiology at University College London and now works as an audiologist.

After doing work experience within a unit for hearing impaired children at a local primary school, Dawn decided that she wanted a career working with and helping people who experience hearing impairment. She looked into different career opportunities and saw an advertisement for a BSc Audiology course. She decided she wanted to know more and contacted her local community paediatric audiology clinic. She was allowed to attend for several days' work experience which allowed her to find out more about what audiology involved. She also arranged a tour of University College London (UCL) audiology teaching facilities which further informed her choice of career as a clinical scientist (audiology).

While studying in sixth form for A-Levels in biology, mathematics and business studies, Dawn applied for several BSc Audiology courses at different institutions. In her spare time, she attended her local adult education centre where she undertook British Sign Language level 1. This, combined with her pro-activeness in obtaining work experience, led to her being accepted into the second cohort of BSc Audiology students at UCL. After completing the four-year degree, which involved a third-year placement within a specialist centre for audiology where she completed her Certificate in Clinical Competency, Dawn applied for several band 5 audiology posts and was lucky to be offered one.

Dawn strongly recommends doing some work experience within audiology before applying in order to find out what is involved in the day-to-day activities. This will help you determine whether a career in audiology is right for you or not.

Dawn’s degree studies gave her a lot of very relevant skills and experience. During the third year of her studies, Dawn put into practice all of the theory that she had learnt in the second year. When she went back to university for the fourth year, she used this practical knowledge to learn advanced theory and put it into practice for her research projects.

The world of audiology is still evolving, and a wealth of research is being collected all the time. Therefore, the role of a clinical scientist evolves, especially as they get to make a difference to younger and younger people. Technology is constantly evolving, enabling specialists to offer more to their patients. Dawn’s role involves the following;

• daily use of audiometric equipment;
• fitting and verification of digital hearing aids to adults;
• dealing with maintenance and repair of hearing aids;
• working with the team of audiologists to audit current work practices and patient satisfaction, improving them if required;
• giving patients advice on communication tactics and listening strategies.

Dawn finds her job very rewarding, particularly as she is able to work with a wide variety of people and fit hearing aids knowing that they will make a big difference to quality of life. In the future, she would like to complete modules of the higher training scheme and get more involved in peadiatric audiology.