A new breed of professionals

Figure: Dennis Van VlietAs I write this month's Final Word, my wife, Alison, and I have just returned from our annual backpacking trip. This year, we explored another part of the Eastern Sierra in California near Mammoth Lakes. We planned our trip with help from topographic maps and guidebooks of the John Muir and Pacific Crest Trails. The John Muir Trail courses from Yosemite Valley to Mt. Whitney, the highest point in the lower 48 states. Much of the 211-mile trail overlays the Pacific Crest Trail, a 2650-mile path from Mexico to the Canadian border through California, Oregon, and Washington. The trail from Yosemite Valley to Mt. Whitney is a popular route with adventurers, who take 3 weeks or so to travel the 211 miles. We were not that adventuresome, and figured that 3 nights and a total of about 25 miles was plenty for us. (We were out of wine by the third night.) We were impressed by how many hikers were tackling the John Muir trail, planning to scale Mt. Whitney after weeks on the trail eating freeze-dried foods and dried fruit. We traveled from south to north on a trail that oscillated from about 9200 feet to over 10,000 feet. Most of the John Muir adventurers were traveling in the opposite direction, which gave us a good chance to meet some very interesting people, along with a curious bear or two. One thing that impressed us was the number of people hiking alone. Not that they were really alone, because the hikers tended to cluster together at night and support each other. Striking out on a solo 3-week journey through the wilderness, however, requires an unusual amount of determination. DEGREES OF DETERMINATION This made me think of the varying degrees of determination I see when dealing with professional colleagues. Some are very comfortable working in a familiar environment with skill sets honed to meet the needs of that environment. Others are constantly seeking new challenges to increase their range of skills and to better serve their patients. It used to be that I needed to generalize from mechanical skills that I learned from my father or as an aircraft electronic technician during the Vietnam War to repair, fit, or modify hearing aids. I often found co-workers deferring to me for tricky repairs or fittings. Now, it is commonplace for a young audiologist to snatch a hearing aid from my hands so that she can “practice” replacing the removal strand or perform some other delicate task. Professional training is improving, and I believe we are seeing a new breed of determined professionals who constantly seek to gain new skills and perfect their old ones. Just as we need to rely on the supplies and equipment in our backpacks when we explore the wilderness, audiologists must carry their skills with them and be ready to survive on their own in the wilderness of patient care. What I am seeing with more frequency are audiologists seeking training on new equipment, skills, and procedures that may not have been around during their academic training. Instead of telling me, “I wasn't trained to do that,” audiologists I work with are saying, with refreshing regularity, “I've read the journals on this new procedure. Do you think we could get checked out on it?” This is the mark of true, independent professionals: recognizing when training is deficient, and taking the initiative to correct the deficiency. Looking ahead, I see a number of unknowns for our profession. I don't expect automatic fitting systems to replace fitting skills, yet I'm sure that hearing aids as we know them will not be around, and we'll need new skills to keep pace with the technologic developments. Professionals with the determination to develop those skills will be the experts to whom the public turns for service. Change can be difficult for our patients as they learn to accept their hearing loss and respond to the challenges required for effective use of amplification. At the same time, we need to accept that things will likely be different with the application of technology, and we must be willing to change in response. It may be difficult for us to move beyond the comfortable womb of a practiced skill set, but it will be crucial for the survival of the profession and for the good of our patients. The Final Word? A new breed of professionals is emerging to meet the challenges of traditional skills and new technology that face us with hearing rehabilitation. This new breed is characterized by a determination to learn and the willingness to change to meet new requirements. The question is, can we keep up with them?

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