Olivia Austin describes the day in the life of an Audiologist in the UK and the rewards of seeing instant results when fitting her patients with hearing aids. I always say to people I absolutely love doing my job. I get to see results straight away in front of me.
As soon as you put a pair of hearing aids on somebody you can instantly notice the difference in their hearing. Although sometimes it’s not the easiest because there still is a little bit of a stigma behind wearing hearing aids, which we are trying to change within the industry, but then at the same time I think that’s probably my favourite part. It is somebody coming in and they’ve not necessarily noticed anything about their hearing. It may be that their friends and family have noticed and they’ve given them nudge to come into my practice, and then when I put them on and they say “Actually WOW this is how I should be hearing!” – that’s the best part.
I think I spend quite a long time seeing people, because standardly when I fit people with hearing aids I see them for a fitting appointment and lots of fine turning appointments, so I really get to know people. So by the end of it, I mean, I make jokes with my receptionists about the fact that I’m really going to miss them when they leave because I’ve seen them for quite a while and we’ve got that really good working relationship.
