CHCS Perspectives Summer/Fall 2013

PERSPECTIVES • SUMMER-FALL 2013 – Page 22 T he American Academy of Audiology’s an- nual conference entitled AudiologyNOW!, which was held April 3-6 in Anaheim, Cali- fornia, provided a fantastic opportunity for audiolo- gists and students to become acquainted with new technologies in the field, meet fellow audiologists and students from different areas, and learn firsthand the results of extremely relevant research projects that have been conducted over the past few years. While at the conference, third-year doctor of au- diology student Erin Hattey and Patricia Gaffney, Au.D., assistant professor, presented an exciting poster pertaining to their research study surveying Doctor of Audiology graduates. “This was a really great opportunity to work with Dr. Gaffney on a re- search project, submit the project for a poster ses- sion, and get accepted as a poster presentation,” said Hattey. “It was exciting to see it all come to- gether at AudiologyNOW!” Dr. Gaffney, who serves as the AudiologyNOW program chair, initially began the research for this poster presentation in 2005. Since then, the research has been continued by Dr. Gaffney and a collaborat- ing student in 2006, 2008, 2010, and then most recently, along with Hattey, in 2012. Poster data was collected based on the results of a survey aimed toward current students and graduates of any resi- dential Au.D. program within the United States. Since this is the fifth time the survey has been administered, Hattey and Dr. Gaffney examined specific trends including salaries, strengths and weaknesses of programs, ex- ternship placement, and payment, among other factors. Hattey discussed that she was particularly interested in collecting data re- garding financial trends before and after 2008. The survey was constructed on sur- veymonkey.com , which automatically collected the data, and was distributed through the National Student Academy of Audiology database, as well as by word of mouth and email to collect graduate student responses. Once the survey was closed, Hattey and Dr. Gaffney recorded the results, using Mi- crosoft Excel to create the charts and graphs they felt would best represent the information displayed on the poster. During the conference, Hattey had a 90-minute timeframe where she stood next to the poster and presented information as well as answered questions people asked as they came to hear about the project associated with the poster. She ultimately found that people were most in- terested in factors such as average starting salaries and average loan debt. Hattey truly enjoyed presenting the poster and actually ended up staying an extra 30 minutes to continue discussing the findings. “There seemed to be many people interested in what I had to say, which shows how appli- cable this research is for us,” she stated. Hattey stated that presenting at Audi- ologyNOW! was a great experience and highly encourages future audiology students to continue working on the research survey and analyzing associated long-term trends. Trends in Audiology: A Survey of Residential Doctor of Audiology Students and Graduates RIGHT Erin Hattey (left) and Dr. Patricia Gaffney presenting their research poster at the AudiologyNOW! conference. TOP RIGHT Dr. Gaffney giving the opening speech. “She (Hattey) ultimately found that people were most interested in factors such as average starting salaries and average loan debt.” By Alexis Cohan, Class of 2015 Audiology Student