Audiology Students Help Nursing Center Patients

Audiology graduate students Monica Trevino (left) and Akhilandeshwari Sivaswami assist a resident of the Autumn Leaves skilled nursing center during an ear canal management clinic.

Audiology students from UTD’s Callier Center for Communication Disorders recently helped residents of a local nursing center experience better hearing during an ear canal management clinic.

Under the direction of an audiology faculty member from the School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences and a Callier clinician, the students cleaned the ear canals of 16 patients at the Autumn Leaves skilled nursing center in Dallas.

The goal of the clinic was to provide a service to the community while providing valuable clinical experience for the students.

According to Dr. Jason Baker, Callier Center audiologist, the time was well spent.

“It was an extremely positive experience and I am glad we were able to implement a clinical service like this,” he said. “There definitely is a high demand for our services and there are many benefits including community outreach, hands-on experience for students, and marketing for UT Dallas/Callier Center for both potential teaching clinic patients and regular clinic patients.”

In addition to Baker, Dr. Ross Roeser, the Howard B. and Lois C. Wolf Professor for Pediatric Hearing and executive director emeritus of the Callier Center for Communication Disorders, provided guidance to the students. Those graduate students were Josephine Han, Monica Trevino, Hannah Swanner and Akhilandeshwari Sivaswami.

Leaders of the audiology program, which is ranked No. 4 in the country by U.S. News and World Report, plan on providing future clinics at Autumn Leaves.

–Phil Roth