Deciding Factors in Selecting a Career Path in Educational Audiology: A Survey of Audiologists and Audiology Externs

Abstract

Educational Audiologists are health-related professionals who specialize in prevention, identification, and treatment of hearing loss for children aged 3 to 21 in the school system. Given they play a critical role in ensuring the success of deaf and hard of hearing students, the Educational Audiology Association (EAA) and the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) recommends a ratio of one educational audiologist per 10,000 school children. However, no state currently meets this ratio, and often far exceeds the recommendation. Recognizing there may be a possible shortage of educational audiologists, this project focused on creating a survey designed to identify what factors may lead audiologists to pursue or deter one from a career as an educational audiologist. Survey responses revealed that the most common reason one pursues educational audiology is the desire to work with and help children with hearing loss succeed. In addition, those that had a clinical rotation during their graduate program were more likely to become an educational audiologist than those that did not. Interestingly, in comparison to the current educational audiologists, a greater percentage of educational audiologists who left the educational setting had taken the position because it was the only audiology position available, or the opportunity presented itself and/or was part of their current job responsibilities. Factors dissuaded individuals from becoming an educational audiologist included wanting to work with adults, not having the capability to complete the job successfully, jobs not being available, and perceived low wages.