History and Development of Interprofessional Education

While Interprofessional education (IPE) has existed as a powerful construct for many years, the advent of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (2010) in the United States (U.S.) has placed a new urgency on integration of an IPE model into the education of students in speech-language pathology and audiology. The American Speech- Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) has embraced the IPE concept, and the ASHA Ad Hoc Committee on Inter professional Education has strongly recommended that ASHA support IPE within its academic curriculum for Audiologists and speech-language pathologists. As a result, it is very likely that ASHA will require that academic programs in its purview to train students, both academically and experientially, in IPE concepts and practices.

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Over the Counter Hearing Aids

Audiology resides in an ever changing landscape; we see it on a daily basis. In regards to hearing aids and other amplification devices, we’ve seen changes in size, shape, and function. Today, along with the common ear-level, air conduction hearing aids, personal sound amplification devices (PSAPs) are gaining popularity. 

Many modern PSAPs may also be referred to as “wearable’s” to be consistent with the popular devices such as wearable fitness trackers, smart watches, etc. If the term “wearable” is not appealing, maybe the term “hearable” is. The term “hearable” modified from “wearable” has been coined to provide consumers a more accurate and specific image. There are many similarities between modern hearing aids and PSAPs that allow for easy comparison. Both hearing aids and PSAPs are programmable to change user settings appropriate for different listening environments. Both types of devices have wireless capabilities, such as Bluetooth, to allow for communication between multiple types of devices.

Patients' Experience of Motivational Interviewing for Hearing Aid Use: A Qualitative Study Embedded within a Pilot Randomised Controlled Trial

The aim was to explore patients’ accounts with regard to their experience of taking part in a pilot study evaluating the feasibility of conducting a #randomised controlled trial (RCT) on the effect of #motivational interviewing (MI) on hearing-aid use. This was a qualitative sub-study embedded in a pilot RCT in NHS in which participants who reported using their hearing aid(s) less than four hours per day were randomised to MI combined with audiology standard care (MISC) (n=20), and standard care alone (SC) (n=17). 

Five themes emerged in relation to the participants’ perspectives about the key components of the research programme which influenced their hearing aid use. The themes comprise: additional support, clinician effect, commitment to research, research process, and feeling better about self. The provision of hearing aids in the #NHS may benefit from adopting a more compassionate patient clinician relationship, additional patient education, and post-hearing-aid-fitting support. Finally, this study suggests that the general research participation effect seems to have influenced the levels of #hearing-aid use in both groups. Strategies to minimize the research participation effect need to be considered in the design of the future full-scale trials.