Survey of audiologists and cerumen management.

PURPOSE

Cerumen management (CM) is within the scope of practice of audiology, and the Doctor of Audiology (AuD) is now the entry-level degree for persons practicing the profession. However, little recent information is available about whether and how CM is presently being taught in AuD programs or even if and how audiologists are currently practicing CM. This study surveyed audiologists about their training for, experience with, opinions about, and practices involving CM.

METHOD

A questionnaire was designed for this study and was e-mailed with a link to Survey monkey.com in April and May 2011 to 1,575 audiologists with AuD degrees, randomly sampled from the American Academy of Audiology’s membership directory.

RESULTS

The return rate was 29% (447 returned). Overall, 69% of these audiologists performed CM compared to only 29% reported in earlier studies.More audiologists in private practice (87%) performed CM than those in medical settings (65%). Almost half (48%) of the audiologists who had completed residential AuD programs believed that their training programs inadequately prepared them to perform CM.

CONCLUSION

More audiologists are performing CM than in the past. The respondents reported that they were inadequately trained in CM and believed that educational programs need to improve their coverage of CM.