audiologist vs. audioprosthologist

Answer 1

An audiologist is educated in the field of ear health. They are clinicians. They study advanced diagnostic techniques, pathologies of the ear, and balance disorders. What is not common knowledge is that audiologists receive little to no training in hearing aids from audiology school, yet when most people think of hearing aids, they immediately think of audiologist. Find out for yourself. The next time you speak to an audiologist, ask him/her how much training they received in hearing aids from audiology school. At most they will say one course and this one course only covers the most basic of concepts about hear aids. Audiologists are commonly found in hospitals and commonly work for physician specialists such as otologists. They are a type of specialized nurse. There are many types of specialized nurses. Some examples are cardiac nurses, nurse anesthetists, pediatric nurses, and so on. The term audiologist is a bit of a misnomer. When they achieve their degree, it is typically an AuD or PhD, both of which are referred to as "doctor". However, audiologists are neither "audio" nor "doctor". I find it interesting that the American Academy of Audiology has posted such a strong statement against the term audioprosthologist. Their stance is that the term is misleading and is an attempt to sound like audiologist (sounds petty to me). The term audioprosthology is basically sound prosthetic. This seems pretty straight forward. On the other side of the coin however, audio is a VERY small part of what audiologists learn. The more encompassing prefix which should apply to their name is "oto", as this Latin prefix includes sound, ear health, balance .... And they should certainly NOT take on the term doctor while working in a hospital!! I would think that if anyone is misleading the public by the misuse of a title, the audioprothologist would not be the weak link here. The audiologist should rather be referred to as "nurse otologist". I want to add that Audiologists (hence for will be renamed as nurse otologists) are very useful and CAN get training in hearing aids. They just don't get this training in audiology school. They get the training the same place as hearing instruments specialists and audioprosthologists do so when it comes to fitting hearing aids, the playing field (as far as talent and knowledge is concerned) is a bit more level than the audiologist and physician community would lead you to believe. Furthermore, the audioprosthology degree is not a strong degree however it is the only one out there that vaguely resembles an advanced degree in hearing aids. The reason why there is no strong degree in hearing aids is because the field is changing too rapidly. They are in many ways tiny computers built to work with the human body. As soon as a textbook would be written, the knowledge could very well be outdated in a matter of a year. A more applicable training I would think to look for would be a hearing aid fitter trained in the field of communication science disorders. CSD covers elements of both audiology and speech language pathology. If a person so trained were to also received training in hearing aids.....well then this seems like the perfect person to fit hearings. So audiologists, get out of hearing aids unless you decide to commit and specialize in them, and hearing aid fitters should use audiologist for pediatric and more medically related issues. Hearing professionals should use the system as it was intended and not try to bleed into each others field of expertise. This squabbling over turf is to the detriment of both of our professions and to the very people we are doing this job for. Prior to 1978, ASHA did not allow "nurse otologists" to sell products related to their profession for profit as it was deemed unethical. There was a reason for this.