Search

Purpose: Students in audiology clinical doctorate programs in the United States are required to participate in direct patient care under the supervision of a licensed precepting audiologist during their schooling. Audiology student clinicians commonly rotate through a variety of clinical settings with their own organizational structure, policies, and precepting clinicians. Systemic prejudice and stigma cause many of these student clinicians to experience bigotry from the patients they work with., Method: This review discusses the populations of audiology students at highest risk of patient bigotry and discusses the intersectionality of students with several historically marginalized identities., Results: Little scholarship exists in the field of audiology on the bigotry that graduate student clinicians experience. The effects of bigotry are reviewed, and practical guidance on preparing for and responding to bigotry from patients is provided., Conclusions: As health care workers, these students are essential workers contributing to the health and health care of the population, making their well-being a critical public health concern. Bigotry from others has been shown to contribute to mental illness, burnout, and poorer physical health among the people experiencing it.

Purpose: More than 7% of the U.S. population identifies as LGBTQ+ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and other identities), meaning clinical audiologists in all settings are likely to encounter LGBTQ+ patients seeking audiological services. This conceptual clinical focus article (a) introduces contemporary LGBTQ+ terms, definitions, and pertinent issues; (b) summarizes the current state of knowledge on barriers to equitable hearing health care access and utilization for people who identify as LGBTQ+; (c) explores the legal, ethical, and moral obligations for audiologists to provide equitable care to people who identify as LGBTQ+; and (d) provides resources to continue to learn about salient LGBTQ+ issues., Conclusions: This clinical focus article provides actionable guidance to clinical audiologists on providing inclusive equitable care to LGBTQ+ patients. Practical actionable guidance on how clinical audiologists can make their clinical practice more inclusive for their patients who identify as LGBTQ+ is provided.

Purpose: Transgender people have been increasingly visible in society. Recent research has indicated that millions of Americans, 0.7% of the total population, identify as transgender. Although transgender people experience all the same auditory and vestibular disorders as people who are not transgender, there is a dearth of information about transgender issues in audiology graduate education and continuing education. The author discusses their positionality as a transgender audiologist and provides guidance on working with transgender patients from their experience and from the published literature., Conclusion: This tutorial provides an overview of transgender identity for clinical audiologists and summarizes the social, legal, and medical landscape of transgender identity as it relates to audiology.