New93 role standards, now public
MedTality
Role standards

Therapy and rehabilitation

Audiologist

What a newly certified audiologist must do safely on their own: measure hearing accurately, reason from the results to what they mean, fit devices that are verified rather than assumed, and refer anything that should not wait, drawn from ASHA's knowledge and skills outcomes for the Certificate of Clinical Competence in Audiology.

Practice this assessmentHire for this role
Expectations
10
Safety red lines
4
Sources
4
Version
1

Built from American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, Educational Testing Service, American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery Foundation. Reviewed by clinicians, last on .

01What the role is measured on#

Every verdict is made of the same five dimensions. Each is scored on its own, so a candidate sees where they are strong and where to work.

  • Clinical skillsThe hands-on and judgement work of the role: recognising what matters, acting in the right order, and knowing when something cannot wait.
  • Workflow and toolsGetting the work done in a real setting: the systems, records, equipment and handoffs the role runs on, used correctly and on time.
  • Patient communicationHow the role talks with patients, families and colleagues: listening, explaining plainly, and confirming what was understood.
  • Compliance and safetyThe rules that protect people: privacy, consent, infection control, reporting duties and the safety checks the role is accountable for.
  • Role knowledgeKnowing the job itself: what the role is responsible for, where its scope ends, and who to bring in when it does.

02What a ready hire does#

What a competent audiologist does on day one, dimension by dimension.

Clinical skills

  • Measures hearing with a battery chosen for the person and the question, masks whenever the difference between the ears requires it, and cross-checks results before trusting them.
  • Takes impressions safely, fits and programs hearing devices to a validated prescriptive target verified with real-ear measurement, and validates the benefit with the person.

Workflow and tools

  • Builds a plan from the results and the person's own goals, with devices, communication strategies, other services and follow-up that are timed and owned.
  • Records test conditions, results, reliability and recommendations so another audiologist or physician can act on them.

Patient communication

  • Explains the hearing loss, the device and the strategies in a way the person and their communication partners can use, and confirms they can manage the device.
  • Presents the real options - including prescription devices, over-the-counter devices, assistive technology, implant evaluation and waiting - with honest benefits, limits and costs, and recommends from what matters to the person.

Compliance and safety

  • Recognises the findings that need medical evaluation and how fast - same day, urgent, or routine - and makes sure the referral actually happens.
  • Keeps test equipment calibrated and checked, and clinical equipment clean, so results are trustworthy and nothing is transmitted between patients.

Role knowledge

  • Integrates the whole battery into a site-of-lesion hypothesis, notices when results do not fit together, and considers the serious explanation before the common one.
  • Knows where audiology ends and medicine begins, and what their state licence and training allow, and works to the edge without crossing it.

03Safety red lines#

Any one of these keeps a candidate from Ready Day One, whatever the rest of the score. They are published so nobody meets them for the first time in the assessment.

  • Reports thresholds for the poorer ear, or a unilateral loss, without masking when the difference between the ears requires it, or reports results they judged unreliable as final without saying so.

    An unmasked shadow curve hides a dead ear or a retrocochlear loss, and every diagnosis, referral and fitting built on it is wrong.

  • Treats a sudden sensorineural hearing loss as routine - fits or orders a hearing aid, or books a recheck or a routine referral - instead of arranging same-day medical evaluation.

    Treatment for sudden sensorineural loss is most effective early and is generally offered only within about two weeks; a routine referral spends that window.

  • Tells a person a device will restore normal hearing, cure tinnitus or stop the loss progressing, or withholds a cheaper option that would meet their needs, to secure the purchase.

    It is a misrepresentation of the product and a breach of the professional code; the person pays for a promise and often abandons the device when it is not kept.

  • Attributes an asymmetric sensorineural loss, unilateral tinnitus, or word recognition much poorer than the thresholds predict to age or noise without considering a retrocochlear cause or referring for medical evaluation.

    A vestibular schwannoma or other retrocochlear lesion grows while it is labelled presbycusis, and the chance to treat it while small is lost.

04Outside the role#

Knowing where the role stops is part of the standard. Going past it is not extra credit.

  • Does not diagnose or treat medical or surgical ear disease, or prescribe medications such as steroids or antibiotics.Describes the audiological findings and refers to a physician with the urgency the findings require.
  • Does not remove cerumen or foreign bodies unless state law allows it and they are trained, and not where there is a known perforation or other contraindication.Refers to a physician or a credentialed colleague.
  • Does not decide whether acute vertigo is a stroke, or delay emergency care to complete vestibular testing.Stops testing and sends the person for emergency medical assessment when there are neurological signs.
  • Does not dispense or fit hearing aids outside the requirements of their state licence and FDA device rules.Follows the state dispensing law and FDA requirements, and refers red-flag conditions for medical evaluation before fitting.

05How it is assessed#

  • A spoken assessment

    An examiner talks the candidate through realistic cases from this role, and follows up the way a senior colleague would.

  • Five dimensions

    Each answer is read against the expectations above and rated on the same four-level scale.

  • The 70 bar

    Every scorecard shows the score against 70, overall and for each dimension, with the reason for the verdict.

  • Safety first

    Crossing one of the safety red lines holds a pass back, however strong the rest was.

The four levels

  1. Not yet
  2. Developing
  3. Proficient
  4. Exemplary
How a verdict is made

06Sources and review#

Drawn from the certification frameworks and practice standards below, and reviewed by clinicians. Version 1, last reviewed .

Cited as sources. Not an endorsement by the organizations named.

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