Teaching Patient-Centered Counseling Skills for Assessment, Diagnosis, and Management of Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo.

Audiologists are an integral part of the management of those with dizziness and vestibular disorders. However, little research has been performed on counseling approaches for patients who present with dizziness as a primary concern. Accordingly, it is important that audiology students are provided with didactic and experiential learning opportunities for the assessment, diagnosis, and management of this population. Benign paroxysmal positional vertigo is the most common vestibular disorder among adults. Doctor of Audiology students, at a minimum, should be provided with learning opportunities for counseling patients with this particular disorder. Implementation of patient-centered counseling is applied across various parts of the patient encounter from initial intake to treatment and patient education. The purpose of this article is to present the available evidence and to apply widely accepted theories and techniques to counseling those with benign paroxysmal positional vertigo. Didactic resources and experiential learning activities are provided for use in coursework or as a supplement to clinical education.