How to Become an Audiologist – Audiology as Your Career Choice

Choosing a career path is a decision that you will have to live with for the rest of your life. How your life will be spent will in one way or another, be affected by such a choice. It all begins with an aspiration; an aspiration that has been brought about by what you want to become. After forming that ambition, you start moving for you to reach it and that would be through the help of various institutions that will help you attain your career goals. This is the typical scenario when you want to become a professional someday. Such is the case also, if being an audiologist is what you want. Being on that track, let us look further into the steps on how to become an audiologist.

As you may have already known, audiologists treat and diagnose patients with hearing and balance problems. They can be found in a variety of settings such as in hospitals, rehabilitation centers, schools or in private practice. Usually, you can find them working together with another professional when handling patients. Aside from specializing and practicing their field, some of them also help in developing technologies for improvements in the treatment of the mentioned disorders. If you are an aspiring audiologist, then it is most likely that you are most inclined to science subjects such as biology and anatomy. As early as high school, it would be best if you take interest in such subjects as this serve as good fundamentals to your desire to become an audiologist. Once you get out of high school, select a bachelor’s degree which you believe will help you become equipped once you pursue further studies to become an audiologist. Typically, any bachelor’s degree is accepted for people who want to proceed with taking up an audiologist degree. In most cases, a doctoral degree (AuD) must be completed by the candidate after the four-year bachelor’s degree. There are master’s degrees offered for aspiring audiologists in some places. If you are reluctant about this matter, you can check website such as the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) for the accepted degrees and other requirements. After obtaining a doctoral degree, a license or certification must be attained by the candidate. ASHA offers the Certificate of Clinical Competence in Audiology (CCC-A) for those seeking to be credentialed. Credit can also be acquired through the American Board of Audiology (ABA).

Being an audiologist entails more than the skills acquired through education. The steps on how to become an audiologist wouldn’t be complete if we fail to sight that, above all, the audiologist must keep that unfaltering willingness to help others. This is a part of their quest to support people who have hearing and balance disorders. Thus, an audiologist can be seen as someone who is more than just a professional. That is, the audiologist also is a compassionate critical thinker who aims to help his patients for the improvement of their health.