Opinion
An Extended Scope of Practice for Audiology: the Case for Ireland
Department of Speech and Hearing Sciences, University College Cork (UCC), Ireland
Received Date: January 15, 2020; Published Date: January 29, 2020
Abstract
There is a growing demand in the medical field for nonphysician health care professionals to provide an array of services that would help relieve the extreme pressure of long waiting lists in health services, as well as help improve the patient journey and outcomes of management. There have been moves to extend the scope of practice for nursing [1], Speech and language therapy [2,3] as well as other areas of clinical therapy over the years. Hearing services are no different. There are many studies that demonstrate the potential of what highly trained, specialized audiologists can do to contribute, for example in paediatric audiology [4] as well as to specialist balance and tinnitus clinics.
