My First 100 days as Audiologist
When I was a student,
I can’t wait to practice as an audiologist. .I want to be called ‘Audiologist’..instead of student, student ‘tahun empat’, student clinician…whatever…
I can’t wait to make decision on my own to prescribe patient the hearing aid, to suggest the appropriate management to them..everything is in my hand..
I want to take full control on my session with the patient..no interrupt please..
Despite all these 'wishes', the most important thing for me when I was a student, I just want to graduate on time..
And now, after 100 days practice as an qualified, certified, recognized ….Audiologist…It’s just another world for me and I believe for everyone else who was a student..
Entering a new world means that you have to learn new things, deal with new people, get used to the new system. Things that we learnt during study are still applicable like clinical skills, testing skills, clinical knowledge, counseling skills. It doesn’t mean once you get out from there, you can do want ever you want. It is just not the way to practice as a professional health care provider. You might free from comments, supervision, critics, but you can’t run away from professionalism and ethics.
Being in a private setting, for sure the new things are marketing, business, sales, profit, prices, costs and performance...Everything, or most things are being tied with business. I make this statement doesn’t mean once you are in the private setting you are turned to be a business-oriented-audiologist/profit-oriented-audiologist. It just make you more aware of the patients' purchasing power (but still the patient’s needs for his/her hearing problem is in the first place)..PLEASE do not ever prescribe a high-end hearing aid just solely based on patient’s financial ability..this is not a professional practice by an audiologist…do remember we are AUDIOLOGIST not PRIVATE DISPENSER or HEARING SPECIALIST/CONSULTANT. I still remember someone told me that there is a huge difference if a hearing care business is manage/own by a business man with audiologist working for him/her and a hearing centre operate and own by an audiologist. I strongly agree with his statement. After all, being in a private setting is not a bad choice for me and I really having lots of fun by discovering new things and it do give me a challenging task to other than the audiological work.
After 100 days, I am grateful that I am working in a good company with a good background and good products. It’s certainly a good start for me although it’s a reverse way to start my career. Good thing is I am not as busy as my friends in hospital who can see up to 8-10 patients in one day (I am not saying the business is bad). It just give me more time to learn and discover the new thing like earmould making process, how to manage a center by one-man-show (a difficult skill to learn)….and do some journal/article reading to update myself with the latest news, latest innovation in the field…I guess the last thing is a must-do-thing for every audiologists out there regardless of how experience they are..
One last sentence..
I LOVE MY JOB, I LOVE WIDEX
