Audiologist Fellowship - Adult Hearing Aids

Vanderbilt University Medical Center•Nashville, TN

1d•Onsite

About The Position

Located in Nashville, Tennessee, and operating at a global crossroads of teaching, discovery, and patient care, VUMC is a community of individuals who come to work each day with the simple aim of changing the world. It is a place where your expertise will be valued, your knowledge expanded, and your abilities challenged. Vanderbilt Health is committed to an environment where everyone has the chance to thrive and where your uniqueness is sought and celebrated. It is a place where employees know they are part of something that is bigger than themselves, take exceptional pride in their work and never settle for what was good enough yesterday. Vanderbilt’s mission is to advance health and wellness through preeminent programs in patient care, education, and research. This Audiologist Fellowship - Adult Hearing Aids at Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) is a new competitive and compensated Fellowship developed to provide enhanced training in clinical service delivery and translational research related to amplification and hearing loss. The successful applicant will commit to one calendar year (e.g. July 1 – June 30) of clinical and research training. The program incorporates both didactic and practical experiences. The Fellow is invited to attend (i.e., audit) any of the three‑course sequence in Amplification that are completed by Au.D. students. The Fellow will work with clinical supervisors providing hearing aid–related services at Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) until it has been agreed upon by the supervisors that the Fellow can work independently. At that point, the Fellow will be assigned a clinical schedule (referred to as “templates”). It is also noted that the Fellow may have some templated time (e.g. four hours) providing other audiology services. Hearing aid–related services are provided by VUMC at both the main campus and satellite clinics in surrounding communities (e.g. Franklin, TN). The successful applicant will also be expected to participate in the clinical research program in the Hearing Aid Laboratory, which may include projects completed in dedicated laboratory space. In most cases, this will represent participation in existing protocols but may also include projects initiated by the Fellow. It is the program’s intention for the Fellow to have achieved co‑authorship on at least one manuscript submitted to a peer‑reviewed journal by the conclusion of the fellowship. The Fellow may also be invited to provide a lecture in the academic program and/or present research at national conferences. Portions of research projects are completed in the Hearing Aid Research, Reverberation Chamber, and Anechoic Chamber laboratories. The Hearing Aid Research Laboratory is devoted to the evaluation and refinement of existing amplification and cochlear implant technology; the examination of basic differences in the total listening experience of listeners with normal and impaired hearing; the development and refinement of amplification selection, fitting, adjustment, and counseling techniques; the improvement of hearing aid affordability and accessibility while maintaining appropriate outcomes; and the development, evaluation, and design of coupling technologies, hearing protection devices, and signal processing schemes for hearing aids and cochlear implants. The Hearing and Affect Perception Interest laboratory focuses on research related to hearing aid technologies for adults and children, with specific emphasis on speech recognition, listening effort, and emotion perception. These laboratories share research space equipped with a control room and two custom sound‑attenuating test rooms. The laboratories are controlled by multiple computer systems and contain standard audiometric equipment, including audiometers with high‑frequency testing capability, hearing aid fitting systems with integrated hearing instrument test chambers, otoscopes, a middle ear analyzer, multi-channel amplifiers, and the necessary hardware and software to program a wide range of hearing instruments. Additional equipment includes sound level meters, sound analysis and generation systems, a clinical immittance bridge, a KEMAR with IEC‑711 ear simulators and artificial mastoid, and multiple loudspeakers supporting diverse sound presentation configurations. The Reverberation Chamber Laboratory is a stand‑alone, computer‑controlled laboratory that allows efficient simulation and control of a wide range of sound‑field environments. The chamber is capable of producing an essentially diffuse sound field and includes a removable blanket system allowing systematic variation in reverberation time from approximately 2.3 seconds to less than 0.3 seconds. The flexibility of the reverberation chamber’s reverberation characteristics and loudspeaker configurations has made it an ideal resource for experiments examining the total listening experience, with and without amplification, across a variety of environments. The Anechoic Chamber Laboratory is a stand‑alone, computer‑controlled laboratory designed for psychoacoustic experimentation in free sound‑field conditions. This chamber is covered on all six interior surfaces by fiberglass wedges and has a measured low‑frequency cutoff of 100 Hz. It includes a full circular horizontal loudspeaker array consisting of 64 loudspeakers spanning 360 degrees. In 1997, the not‑for‑profit Bill Wilkerson Center merged with Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) and the Department of Otolaryngology to form the Vanderbilt Bill Wilkerson Center for Otolaryngology and Communication Sciences. Together, these programs accommodate more than 100,000 outpatient visits each year. The caseload represents all age groups, races, and income levels, with virtually all types of communication and otolaryngologic disorders. The current center includes 50,000 square feet dedicated to clinical services in communication disorders. Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC), located in Nashville, Tennessee, serves Tennessee, northern Alabama, and southern Kentucky. The Vanderbilt Bill Wilkerson Center consists of a multidisciplinary team of clinical audiologists, speech‑language pathologists, auditory rehabilitation researchers, vestibular researchers, physical therapists, occupational therapists, neuroscientists, physicians, and support personnel focused on improving the health care of patients with auditory and balance impairments. This is a post-grad clinical training experience that we have successfully offered for another service line (vestibular audiology) for the past 10 years. The current position is focused on adult hearing aid amplification. This is a term position and the employee will be paid a reduced salary of $60K +fringe.

Requirements

Letter of interest detailing previous clinical and research experiences
Current curriculum vitae
Copies of publications and/or samples of scientific writing
Two letters of recommendation from current and/or former supervisors who can speak to clinical and research experiences
ASHA Certificate of Clinical Competence in Audiology
Eligibility for Tennessee licensure in audiology, which must be in place prior to hire date
Demonstrates mastery in documentation practices. Documents in the appropriate templates and utilizes only approved abbreviations within patient documentation. Meets institutional standards for quality and timeliness of documentation. May orient new staff to departmental and VUMC documentation standards. Completes accurate chart audits of co-workers’ documentation and mentor Level I and Level II clinicians, as needed by the department, regarding departmental and VUMC standards.
Communicates functional impact of assessment findings, treatment interventions, diagnosis, and disease process. Adapts communication to the level of understanding of the patient. Determines comprehension and need for repetition and/or revision of counseling methods. Develops counseling materials (patient educational materials) that promote the understanding by the lay public of complex concepts. Promotes public awareness and prevention of communicative and related disorders through local, and regional presentations to patient groups (e.g. American Tinnitus Association, Vestibular Disorders Association etc). Generates measurable improvement in understanding and quality of life of patients and their families
Includes objectives based on the results of the assessment and input from the patient and family. Selects interventions which produce the desired outcomes within the time frame projected. Modifies the treatment plan if patient/family are not deriving benefit. Identifies and recommends additional/alternative services. Includes patient and family in all aspects of care. Incorporates educational needs of patient and family. Respects roles and professional boundaries of others. Initiation of treatment is preceded, where appropriate, by the use of standardized measures to establish baseline functioning. These baseline measures are followed by subsequent assessments that occur at intervals that are substantiated by existing data and that are considered to be best practice. Incumbent is an innovator in that they participate in local efforts to develop new outcome measures.
Obtains pertinent information to appropriately assess the patient. Administers appropriate hearing assessment per the clinical protocol. Interprets the results of the assessment and their significance for the patient, family, referring physician and other members of the health care team. Demonstrates mastery in knowledge and skills development in audiometric assessment across the age range as well as at least two of the following areas: infant hearing screening and audiometric estimation, hearing aid assessment and fitting, cochlear implant assessment and fitting and balance function testing. The incumbent is considered within and outside VUMC as a subject matter expert in at least one area of clinical audiology. Assists with establishing or modifying existing protocols and procedures for specific patient populations. Designs or participates in the design of research studies that result in the modification of existing protocols, preferred practice patterns and outcomes.

Responsibilities

Provides evaluation, treatment and counsel of patients with hearing disorders to improve communication function.
Initiates collaboration with health care team to meet patient care, outcomes and system improvement objectives.
Increase the visibility of the department and profession through activities that occur in the state, region, nation and world.
Commit to one calendar year (e.g. July 1 – June 30) of clinical and research training.
Attend (i.e., audit) any of the three‑course sequence in Amplification that are completed by Au.D. students.
Work with clinical supervisors providing hearing aid–related services at Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) until it has been agreed upon by the supervisors that the Fellow can work independently.
Be assigned a clinical schedule (referred to as “templates”) once independent.
May have some templated time (e.g. four hours) providing other audiology services.
Participate in the clinical research program in the Hearing Aid Laboratory, which may include projects completed in dedicated laboratory space.
Achieve co‑authorship on at least one manuscript submitted to a peer‑reviewed journal by the conclusion of the fellowship.
May be invited to provide a lecture in the academic program and/or present research at national conferences.
Completes full diagnostic hearing assessments using the appropriate testing method and equipment for the patient type, diagnosis, and reason for referral.
Formulates and/or implements a treatment plan to address deficits and patient/family areas of concern.
Completes documentation in a timely manner.
Provides education/consultation to patient, family, health care team and community.
Enhances and impacts our knowledge of the nature of communicative and related disorders.