Module overview
This module will enable you to develop the basic clinical knowledge, skills, attitudes, values and behaviours required of your first stage of clinical training in audiology, including those required for audiology assistant and Hearing Care Assistant (HCA) roles. This module is carefully coordinated with the other modules in Part 1 such that you will be able to register with the British Society of Hearing Aid Audiologists as an HCA on successful completion of Part 1. For example, it provides a discipline-specific context for your introduction to healthcare services in Introduction to Professional Practice and helps prepare you for Audiology Clinical Placement 1. Three key themes of this module are integration of theory with practice, a strong foundation in patient-centred communication and care, and employability. The module consists of a series of compulsory small-group practical sessions associated with lectures.
Aims and Objectives
Learning Outcomes
Learning Outcomes
Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:
- Explain the professional context, expectations and regulations for assistant audiologists and HCAs, including the National Code of Conduct for Support Workers and fitness to practise requirements.
- Critically evaluate information from multiple sources relevant to the aspects of practice referred to in Learning Outcome A with consideration to measurement/clinical uncertainty, common auditory system pathologies and options for management
- Explain the rationale, theoretical basis and clinical utility of the aspects of practice referred to in Learning Outcome A with reference to evidence (e.g. basic science, professional standards, best-practice guidelines and published research).
- Demonstrate the basic clinical and professional audiology competencies relevant to adult service users, including those required of audiology assistant and HCA roles, within simulated clinical scenarios. Those skills and behaviours include: •Patient-centred communication: basic interviewing, information gathering, basic debriefing, basic counselling and record keeping •Hearing assessment: otoscopy, pure-tone audiometry (PTA) and tympanometry •Rehabilitation: taking an aural impression, communication skills, assistive technologies, sign-posting to other services and basic hearing-aid testing, fitting and adjustment •Associated: problem solving, professional conduct
- Demonstrate appropriate and consistent use of terminology, scientific conventions, scientific language and methods for presenting and reporting test results.
Syllabus
- Principles of patient centred communication
- The National Code of Conduct for Support Workers
- Standards of professional practice in audiology
- The Individual Record of Clinical Practice (IRCP)
- Overview of rehabilitation planning
- Scope of practice of HCA
- Audiological testing and onward referral
- Basic interview skills
- Recording findings
- Basic debriefing skills
- Overview of other services including employment services. Opportunities to shadow an Employment Advisor will be offered where available (in Semester 1)
- Otoscopy
- Fundamentals of audiometric assessment techniques
- Advanced audiometric assessment techniques
- Tympanometry
- Impression taking
- Hearing devices and assistive technologies
- Fundamentals of hearing aid provision, subjective verification and evaluation
- Introduction to real ear measurement verification of hearing aid fitting
- Trouble shooting and basic repair of hearing aids
- Case based clinical decision making – onward referral, management of hearing loss
- Introduction to reflective practice and employability issues
Learning and Teaching
Teaching and learning methods
- Weekly small-group practical session and simulations, including the use of simulated patients and patient volunteers
- Supporting lectures. These will provide theoretical knowledge of the underlying principles behind each procedure to support clinical teaching
- Practice sessions to enable students to practice clinical procedures under supervision
- Working through practical worksheets
- Formative counterparts to the summative assessment
- You will be expected to practice clinical procedures in your own time. You will be able to go to clinical supervisors for assistance
- Opportunities to shadow an Employment Advisor, where possible, and to attend local hard of hearing groups (in Semester 1), where available
| Type | Hours |
|---|---|
| Wider reading or practice | 89 |
| Supervised time in studio/workshop | 72 |
| Revision | 40 |
| Practical classes and workshops | 6 |
| Completion of assessment task | 5 |
| Follow-up work | 16 |
| Preparation for scheduled sessions | 24 |
| Lecture | 48 |
| Total study time | 300 |
Resources & Reading list
Textbooks
Gelfand SA (2016). Essentials of audiology.
Katz J (2015). Handbook of clinical audiology.
Graham JM (2009). Ballantyne's deafness.
Assessment
Assessment strategy
The practical assessments are known as Objective Structured Clinical Examinations (OSCEs). You must pass each of the OSCEs in order to pass the module. You must have attended at least 80% of the taught practical sessions and all those related to impression taking (or alternative sessions, as approved by the Module Lead) in order to qualify for the OSCEs in order to avoid putting volunteers at undue risk. Otherwise you be deemed to have failed the relevant ones.
In accordance with standard university rules, if you fail any component of assessment and pass it at referral, your referral module mark will be capped at 40% regardless of the mark you got for any component at first or remedial attempt. Since you must pass all components of the OSCEs in order to pass that component of assessment overall, this means that your module mark will be capped at 40% even if you fail a single OSCE at referral.
You will only refer on the component you failed at first attempt, and for the OSCEs, only the particular OSCEs you failed at first or remedial attempt. You must have attended the required practise sessions in order to qualify to undertake the remedial or referral OSCEs in order to avoid putting volunteers at undue risk. Otherwise, you will be deemed to have failed the relevant ones.
Summative
This is how we’ll formally assess what you have learned in this module.
| Method | Percentage contribution |
|---|---|
| Final Assessment | 100% |
Referral
This is how we’ll assess you if you don’t meet the criteria to pass this module.
| Method | Percentage contribution |
|---|---|
| Final Assessment | 100% |
Repeat Information
Repeat type: Internal