The professionalization of audiology students
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to investigate the development of audiology students' professional values, traits and attitudes employing a cross-sectional design. In addition, an exploratory component of this study investigated the following characteristics of audiology students: reasons for selecting audiology as a career, professional plans and ambitions for the future and satisfaction with career choice. The effects of gender, age, marital status and grade level on these factors were examined. Two hundred and two students from 15 participating universities served as subjects. Subjects were administered a questionnaire consisting of four sections. The first two sections included demographic information, the reasons audiology was selected as a career, and professional plans and ambitions for the future. The third section, a professionalism scale, was designed to measure five attitudinal attributes of professionalism (i.e., sense of calling, belief in public service, belief in self-regulation, autonomy and using the professional organization as a major reference). The final section consisted of an uncertainty scale, measuring students stress from uncertainty in patient care. For the subjects studied, scores on the professionalism scale were the most professional for the attributes of sense of calling and belief in public service. The least professional responses were obtained for the attributes of autonomy, belief in self-regulation, and using the professional organization as a major reference. Multiple regression analyses revealed that satisfaction and doubts about career choice were significant predictors of professionalism. As hypothesized, stress from uncertainty was significantly negatively correlated with professionalism. This study suggests that although audiology is well on its way to meeting the requirements of a true profession, a number of issues regarding professionalism must be addressed during the recruiting and education of future practitioners.
Degree
Ph.D.
Advisors
Goldstein, Purdue University.
Subject Area
Audiology|Sociology
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