When I was taking case histories in APD clinic, I
found that it was so much information that I would
often repeat what the patients said back to them, as a
way of confirming I was getting the often complicated
stories straight with all the details. One supervisor
took that as a problem- she felt like I was asking
patients to repeat themselves too much. Your story
about the supervisor who thought you shouldn't ask a
patient to repeat a question reminded me of this
experience- and even audiologists with normal hearing
from time to time have to ask a patient to repeat! If
I ever were to do APD again, I might restructure
things a bit to do a little less parroting information
back to patients, but still, given the legal and
clinical importance of getting case history details
straight, I didn't think it was unreasonable at the
time to confirm my understanding with the patients.

Sometimes I'm just amazed at how audiologists act when
confronted with dealing with a hearing loss in a
student or a colleague- the people we would think
would be the most understanding. I admit that there
are probably some limitations on what I can do,
realistically, like you had that experience with the
operating room. Still, it takes some trial and error
to find out what I can do well and what I probably
shouldn't do. Once I get out in the real world, I can
focus on getting a job situation that fits me well,
and maybe consider private practice in order to really
have control over things. Some people have suggested
academia to me as a way of having the flexibility, as
they also think I have some potential in
teaching/research. Still... I've been amazed
sometimes at the audiology community.

Julie

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