To some, audiology might seem like another obscure medical job full of words that are too hard to pronounce, suited to scientists and others more academically gifted than the majority of the population.
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But when you hear an audiologist say one of the most rewarding things about her job is listening to a client gratefully tell her they can hear birdsong again, you realise the care they provide is as much about spiritual wellbeing as it is about physical wellbeing.
“Hearing care and rehab is really about improving quality of life and communication relies on our hearing,” Lisa Ward said.
“We’re helping people connect to the things they love and the people that are important to them, so that’s the rewarding part.”
Miss Ward, 24, is one of two provisional audiologists — along with Terri Ly, also 24 — a few months into a one-year internship and two-year contract at Hearing Australia’s Shepparton clinic.
The pair are both from Melbourne. They were in the same University of Melbourne cohort, completing their Masters of Clinical Audiology. They started their internships together and moved to Shepparton to start work at the clinic at the same time, but not together.
Miss Ly moved in with a friend who had also moved to the city from Melbourne, and Miss Ward moved from her home in the Dandenong Ranges with her partner Toby, who has also had a career change from gardener to apprentice mechanic, and their two cats: Snickers, 12, and Scout, 1.
After almost six years of studying, their internship is their first step outside of university.
No longer focusing on theory and exams, they’re now thrilled to be putting their knowledge into practice and truly making a difference to people’s lives.
“It feels entirely different when you start,” Miss Ward said
“It’s a big change, but it’s great to actually be doing what you’ve spent all those years studying for.”
The pair started the 12-month internship in January in Melbourne with a supervision and training phase close to their home and moved north in March.
“That’s when we really start working on our own,” Miss Ly said.
“We had our supervisor working with us every day back in Melbourne and then when we moved here, day one, starting on our own with our own clients,” Miss Ward said.
“There was a big shift that week because we’d moved to a new town and we were also working in a new clinic with new people and working on our own, so it was a big step.”
“It was intense,“ Miss Ly said.
Miss Ward said that everyone they’ve encountered since moving to Shepparton had made them feel welcome, giving a special nod to the pair’s manager at Hearing Australia, Gemma Savage, who gifted them potplants and a chocolate caramel apple from The Chocolate Apple Factory when they started work.
“It was really actually surprisingly good, and now often when people come up to visit — because we get friends and family visiting quite a bit; our house has almost turned into a little Airbnb — we’ll often get them a chocolate caramel apple as a little local delicacy,” Miss Ward said.
The audiologists see about eight to 10 clients a day and they say working at the clinic provides more opportunities to experience a wider variety in the field than it might elsewhere.
“If you worked in audiology in a hospital, you’re mainly just doing tests and referring clients on, but here we get to take them through their whole journey of finding the right devices for them, equipping them with strategies that they can also share with their family for communicating better at home,” Miss Ward said.
“Then we fit the devices and when we see them again in a couple of weeks it’s really satisfying for them to say ‘These have been really great; I wish I’d done this sooner; I can hear things I haven’t heard in such a long time’.”
The big city natives are enjoying the slower pace in the country and said they had noticed their clients “up here are really friendly”.
They regularly work at Hearing Australia sites more rural than Shepparton — in Echuca and Deniliquin — and said they’d found people in regional areas to be laidback and easygoing.
“Everyone is very patient and friendly,” Miss Ward said.
“We had nice clients in Melbourne as well, but it’s different here.”
The audiologists feel lucky to have both started working in Shepparton together because, often, just one graduate starts in a clinic alone.
“We know each other really well now and we always have a cup of tea at the end of the day together,” Miss Ward said.
Graduates are given a list of open locations for post-university internships and then get to submit their preferences.
“There were only four positions in Victoria and two of the universities are in Victoria, so it was pretty high demand,” Miss Ward said.
Shepparton was the closest location to Melbourne available in Australia this year and both are happy with their decision to move, seeing their term here potentially longer than their contracted two years.
Miss Ward said she and Toby were quite settled in their home and enjoying their new jobs, despite at first pining for the hilly landscape of her home in the Dandenong Ranges that they shared with Toby’s parents.
However, the flat land and wide open skies in the Goulburn Valley have grown on her.
“Now it feels like both places are my home; I’ve got my home in Shepparton and my home back near Melbourne,” Miss Ward said.
Miss Ly says loneliness would possibly present her only reason to leave once her contract was fulfilled if the friend she lives with heads back to Melbourne, but said it was too early to call.
“Living here without family closeby would be hard,” Miss Ly said.
“If my friend was to stay here though I feel like I’d stay as well because I just really love it here.”
Both audiologists enjoy the rehabilitation space in the industry because it offers a good cross-section of hearing checks, diagnostics and reviewing.
There will be a time when they can decide if they’d like to specialise in a particular area, but said they would cross that bridge when they came to it.
"I will see how I go and see what the clinic needs in terms of caseloads,“ Miss Ward said.
The pair will both receive their Qualified Practitioner Certificates at the end of their internship.
Hearing Australia, which turned 75 in 2022, also has a research division — the National Acoustic Laboratories — which provides world-leading research to improve hearing health to help improve the lives of people with hearing difficulties.
It runs the program closely under the guidelines of Audiology Australia.
The organisation supports interns with a direct supervisor who provides frequent opportunities to discuss outcomes and learnings, clinical team meetings and coaching from an experienced clinical support team.
Originally, Hearing Australia serviced only veterans and pensioners, but now it invites all Australians who require hearing assistance.
Senior journalist