Interesting Speciality for AuDs

[Cochlear]

Hey all,

Since many of us are concerned about our future salaries, I thought I'd inform the board here about an emerging surgical speciality open to AuDs and PhDs called intraoperative neurophysiology. The pay is generally higher than your standard audiology job and it gets you inside the OR as a member of the surgical team if that sort of thing is interesting to you.

MD neurologists once overlooked this field but are now starting to gravitate back towards it since realizing it's pretty lucrative. I've been researching this field heavily and plan to enter my AuD program's neurophysiology track this Fall.

More can be read here: http://www.healthpronet.org/ahp_month/03_04.html

Please, if this sounds at all interesting to you research the field and get involved, we need more AuDs in this emerging field!!

If you have any questions, post them here and I'll do my best to answer.

-Cochlear

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[PinkShark21]

My intraoperative monitoring class was taught by Tracy Mishler, Au.D. She owns a company called O.R. Monitoring Consultants, Inc. in St. Louis, MO, which I believe consists of only audiologists who do contract work for IOM at hospitals and clinics in the area.

They have taken a 4th year student in the past, who was later hired on, I believe. So, if you're interested in this scope of practice, it is out there, though possibly limited. I thought I'd give a suggestion if anyone is interested in the STL area and wants to learn more.

 

[BigAl]

we need more AuDs in this emerging field!!

-Cochlear

Not sure how emerging the field is, it has been around for some time. There was an influx of audiologists back in, I want to say 70's or 80's, and then a decrease because audiologists didn't want to be full time IOM techs.

You are absolutely right that this is a great opportunity for Au.D's, but I would like to see Au.D's be credentialed for IOM. I personally have heard Au.D's doing IOM during leg and foot surgeries. Yes there are nerves and yes they need to be monitored, but did we really go through 4 yrs of grad school for this?

 

[Cochlear]

BigAl, you're definitely correct in saying it's a field that has been around for awhile, but it seems things are beginning to shift quite a bit within the field.

It may be true that years back audis were monitoring leg and foot surgeries with a purely "tech" level status, but the scope/technology have expanded and now many of the nerve monitoring duties involve brain and spinal cord surgeries as well as new credentialing.

At the technologist level there is a required CNIM certification. This basically gets you in the OR and has you building up experience with not a whole lot of autonomy. Many times this is now being completed as your 4th year externship. Beyond that, those who hold doctoral degrees and satisfy the requisite case load requirements may then sit for a multi-part exam (both written and oral) to earn the D. ABNM credential which comes with a huge pay increase and elevated autonomy. I spoke with a neurophysiologist with a doctorate of audiology who holds the D. ABNM certification and he point blank told me the earning potential is on par with CRNAs, meaning salaries in the 6 figures. Just for accuracy's sake I called up and spoke with another one who informed me it wasn't very hard to make 75k a year and 100k or more is a definite possibility. While it's not always about the money, I do find it refreshing to come across expanding opportunities for doctors of audiology.

 

[DrumHead]

I was actually quite interested in this for a while. Then I took a class on it and realized it wasn't for me. The DABNM certification process can be up to 2-3 more years after your Au.D. since you are required to have a certain amount of cases (300) before you can take the written and oral exam. The CNIM (tech) requirement is 100 completed cases. Also something that didn't appeal to me is the idea that all-hours-of-the-morning/night type surgery schedule.

Again, I'm not saying people shouldn't look into NIOP, but I don't think it's for me. I'll see if I can find the questionnaire that they gave me.

 

[dcauddie]

I recently heard an audiologist explain that it was possible to get special certification to help with cochlear implant surgeries. The healthpronet site above states that a neurophysiologist, "performs testing and monitoring of the nervous system during surgery to assist the surgeons in avoiding or reducing complications."

Would cochlear implant surgery fall under this category? If not, has anyone heard of audiologists doing this sort of thing? I apologize if this is a silly question- I was having trouble finding more info.

 

[Cochlear]

...Would cochlear implant surgery fall under this category? If not, has anyone heard of audiologists doing this sort of thing? I apologize if this is a silly question- I was having trouble finding more info...

I'll take a stab at this one...I believe cochlear implant surgery WOULD fall under our responsibility as neurophysiologists, especially since some of the surgeries we monitor are done by ENTs and those nerves need monitoring. Oh and here's a little proof I'm not pulling this out of my ass.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18520584

Good question by the way, not silly at all.

 

[Britteli]

Hello,
I am a doctoral student in Audiology and am interested in getting certified in Intraoperative Neurophysiological Monitoring. I'm just starting my second year and would like to start fulfilling my hours for the certification now if possible, I'm just not sure how to go about this. Does anyone have any advice on getting involved early on while still in school?

Thanks for any help.