Working in hearing care provides a range of varied and rewarding career opportunities that make a real difference to people’s lives, from improving hearing to helping to prevent and detect other health conditions and ensuring people get access to the right services.
Information on each of the main hearing care roles, including the qualifications and training required, is set out below.
Hearing Aid Dispensers
Hearing aid dispensers (HAD) are fully qualified clinicians who assess hearing and provide aftercare for hearing aids.
Information on the role of Hearing Aid Dispensers and training available can be accessed at:
Hearing aid dispenser | Health Careers
Audiologists
Audiologists are trained to identify and assess a person’s ears and hearing and any illness linked to the ear, for example vertigo, which affects balance. They make an assessment, offer clinical advice, prescribe hearing aids and refer patients for further treatment when necessary.
Information about how to become an Audiologist, and how to access undergraduate education and training in the UK, can be accessed on the following website:
Training, development and registration (audiology) | Health Careers
Glasgow Caledonian University (GCU) offer a BSc programme for NHS employees as part of a wider clinical physiology qualification. The programme caters for the following specialities:
• Audiology
• Cardiac Physiology
• Neurophysiology
• Respiratory Physiology
Scientist Training Programme under the STP pathway graduates can train to work in a senior healthcare science role.
Queen Margaret University (QMU) offer an MSc/postgraduate qualification in audiology for individuals that already hold a degree in a related subject.
Clinical Scientist
Clinical scientists work with patients of all ages, and may specialise in paediatrics, diagnostics and rehabilitation (including surgically implantable devices). They can be responsible for aspects of the audiological service that are more complex and involve hearing and balance computer-based investigations.
More information on how to train to become a clinical scientist can be found using the website Audiology | Health Careers
Healthcare Science Practitioner
Healthcare Science Practitioners work directly with patients, often children or elderly people providing means to measure or to compensate for hearing loss, including offering the initial therapeutic support and advice, and diagnose audio-vestibular neurological diseases.
Audiovestibular Physician
Doctors in audiovestibular medicine investigate, diagnose and manage hearing, balance and communication disorders in adults and children from birth onwards.
Information on a career in audiovestibular medicine is available using the website
Audiovestibular medicine | Health Careers
ENT (Ear, Nose and Throat) Surgeon
ENT surgeons treat conditions that affect the senses such as hearing and balance disorders or smell and taste problems. They also treat patients with conditions that affect their voice, breathing and swallowing as well as those with head and neck tumours.
They could treat ear conditions such as hearing loss, childhood ‘glue ear’ (where the middle ear is blocked with fluid), dizziness, ear infections and perforated ear drums.
For information on a career as an ENT surgeon, see Otorhinolaryngology (ear, nose and throat (ENT) surgery) | Health Careers