Work in the Hearing Conservation Center: Learning while Benefitting the Community
By Charles Pudrith, Au.D. Ph.D., Audiologist and Assistant Professor in the NIU School of Allied Health and Communicative Disorders
World Hearing Day is on March 3 – a day dedicated to raising awareness about deafness and hearing loss. To celebrate, we asked some folks from NIU Audiology to share a little bit about the work they’re doing to make a difference at home and abroad.
In NIU’s Audiology program, we pride ourselves on providing our students with hands-on learning experiences that help them grow professionally while also giving back to the community. One of the ways students do this is by working in the NIU Hearing Conservation Center (HCC). Students who rotate through the Hearing Conservation Center (HCC) help reduce the effects of age-related hearing loss in the local community by participating in service projects and abroad by helping with scientific research. Service projects that benefit the local community include hearing tests, hearing loss monitoring, hearing protection device counseling and fitting, and noise level measurements. Research projects have focused on evaluating the effects of noise and health markers on hearing and assessing factors that predict accessibility to audiologists.
All services provided by the HCC are free to NIU students, faculty, and staff. Many NIU community members take advantage of our free hearing tests, where we discuss the results, how the results relate to communication problems and options for seeking rehabilitation services such as hearing aids. Tests are performed by graduate-level audiology students and supervised by a licensed audiologist. NIU employees exposed to high noise levels are encouraged to return annually so that we can monitor hearing levels and help the university maintain the standards required by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA).
Students in the HCC provide counseling to individuals who may benefit from hearing protective devices. After meeting with individuals, we may recommend hearing protective devices specific to their needs and take ear mold impressions, if needed. Students in the HCC also meet with student organizations associated with noisy fields such as engineering or the performing arts. These meetings are used to raise awareness about the effects of noise on hearing.
Members of the NIU community interested in learning more about their specific noise exposure levels may participate in dosimetry where they can wear a device for a few days to determine if they are exposed to hazardous noise levels. After the data is collected, we analyze the levels and report any potential need for hearing protection and describe the individual’s noisiest habits.
For research, we evaluate the accuracy of different audiometric tests that assess the effects of noise on hearing. Improving these tests will help identify workers who are sensitive to noise exposure so that we can encourage increased hearing protection use in these individuals. We also evaluate health markers such as metabolites and cardiovascular risk factors to determine how systemic stress throughout the body can affect the ears. In addition to physiological research, we also study access to hearing health care. We have identified several demographic characteristics that describe individuals who have to drive further to the nearest audiologist, even after adjusting for urbanicity. We hope that this work will support administrative changes to audiology, thereby increasing equity in access to care. Undergraduate and graduate students interested in helping us reduce the effects of age-related hearing loss are encouraged to email us at hcc@niu.edu. You can also get more information about our goals by visiting our website.
