title: Educational audiologists: their access, benefit, and collaborative assistance to speech-language pathologists in schools.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The main goals of this study were to determine if school-based speech-language pathologists (SLPs) have access to the services of an audiologist and if those SLPs felt they obtained benefit from the audiologist's services. Additional goals included gathering information about SLPs' (a) understanding of basic audiological concepts typical for a school setting, (b) added job responsibilities brought about by lack of access to an audiologist, and (c) collaboration with audiologists.
  
  
  METHODS
  A 36-item survey was e-mailed to 1,000 SLPs listed with the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association as being employed in schools. Two-hundred and nine respondents from 42 states returned the survey.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Seventy-six percent of the responding SLPs had access at some time to an audiologist, with 88% of them believing they received benefit from the services provided by that audiologist, primarily in the areas of hearing screenings and in-services. Thirty-eight SLPs (58%) who did not have access to an audiologist reported having additional job responsibilities.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Many school-based SLPs believed they received benefit from an audiologist when they had access to one. Collaboration between these professionals was strong, yet findings indicate that audiologists could improve their collaborative efforts with SLPs and assist them in working within their scope of practice and maintaining their ethical standards.
authors.affiliation: Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Indiana, PA, USA. cynthia.richburg@iup.edu
authors.forename: Cynthia McCormick
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Richburg
authors.forename: Becky A
authors.initials: BA
authors.lastname: Knickelbein
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001298:Audiology; D002648:Child; D003299:Cooperative Behavior; D003625:Data Collection; D003638:Deafness / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D005260:Female; D006297:Health Services Accessibility; D006301:Health Services Needs and Demand; D006302:Health Services Research; D006310:Hearing Aids; D006801:Humans; D033183:Interdisciplinary Communication; D007587:Job Description; D007805:Language Development Disorders / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D008297:Male; D012017:Referral and Consultation; D012572:School Health Services; D013066:Speech-Language Pathology; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D014481:United States; D016526:Workload