Rehabilitation of the hearing-impaired involves both technical and educational interventions, in which the audiologist plays a key role. The field of audiology intertwines human and technological components with hearing work-ups to help find technical and educational solutions to achieve better hearing.
Audiology Program
The interdisciplinary education program includes subjects in technology, medicine, and behavioral sciences. Audiology focuses on human conditions with respect to hearing, hearing technology, and communication for the purpose of patient work-up, habilitation, and rehabilitation. Clinical training is interwoven throughout the education program.
Clinical training at Karolinska University Hospital
Clinical training is based at an audiology clinic where students carry out tasks under supervision. During the 16-week clinical training period students must participate in clinical practice 7 hours per day, 35 hours per week.
Each day at the clinic ends with a conference between advisor and student aimed at self-reflection and assessment of clinical performance. The purpose of the course is to provide the student with:
What is the role of an audiologist?
Graduates of the audiology program will mainly be eligible to work at an audiology clinic or center, as well as in private audiology practice, for hearing aid suppliers, and within the occupational, pediatric, and school healthcare systems.
The work mainly includes hearing work-ups by measuring hearing, as well as rehabilitation of hearing-impaired patients, including aspects such as assessment of need and the testing and evaluation of assistive devices. Duties also include measures to prevent hearing damage. The profession of audiologist is suitable for those who enjoy working with people of all ages. It falls within the realm of the science of audiology.
Bachelor's degrees in audiology
The audiology program is offered at the universities in Göteborg, Lund, and Örebro, as well as at Karolinska Institutet. The program requires 120 credits, except for the program in Lund which requires another year, for a total of four years. The program culminates with a 10-credit independent project.
The program leads to an occupational degree in audiology as well as a bachelor’s degree (180 credits).