Our students learn to provide audiology services in real-world settings from day one of their graduate program. They are prepared to meet the challenges of service delivery in the 21st century, moving smoothly into employment at the end of their externship experience in the graduate program.
Want to see what the audiology clinical experience is like? Join our students for a first-person tour of the UPMC Children’s Hospital in the video above and the Eye & Ear Institute in the video below.
As a Pitt audiology student, you will encounter an unparalleled clinical experience. Our program does not have a traditional university Speech & Hearing Clinic. Instead student clinicians participate in clinical education in the CSD Department Clinical Network, a collection of community-based sites where students work with department faculty to acquire Basic Clinical Competencies and Core Clinical Skills. The CSD Network includes a variety of different adult sites including UPMC Eye & Ear Institute, VA Medical Center of Pittsburgh and the UPMC Center for Assistive Technology. Pediatric sites in the network include UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh Public Schools, as well as early intervention agencies providing services to infants and toddlers.
In their second year, students transition to outplacement clinics for more advanced experiences. We access all UPMC audiology clinics for children and adults in addition to the DePaul School for Hearing and Speech, the Western PA School for the Deaf, public schools, agencies, senior living communities, private practices and medical clinics throughout Western Pennsylvania. Over 40 sites provide clinical education to audiology students with dedicated clinical instructors who work closely with the AuD program. Our Interventional Audiology experiences place students in interprofessional experiences to impact hearing in order to improve health care access. In addition, students participate in tele-practice to improve access for patients. Students have opportunities to acquire clinical competencies with patients who have varying types of communication disorders across the lifespan.
The University of Pittsburgh requires that all affiliates on all campuses be vaccinated against COVID-19 or have an approved exemption. This policy applies to all faculty, staff, students and postdocs. This program also requires students to complete clinical education at facilities external to the university. Many SHRS clinical partners require employees, trainees and students to be compliant with the federal vaccination requirement. This includes providing proof of vaccination or exemption to the clinical site. Failure to comply with this requirement for clinical partners may preclude the student from completing the clinical requirements of this program. Some of our clinical partners will not permit students to complete clinical rotations without proof of vaccination and will not accept exemptions.