The first formal audiology course in China is a Sino-Australian audiology project jointly organized by Capital Medical University in China and Macquarie University in Australia. 14 Most of the first-time students came from clinicians. Eight of them were sent to Australia for clinical practice training. Up to now, 1000 people have participated in similar training programs, and 65 of them can have cochlear implant surgery.
Now in China, there are three universities offering bachelor's degrees in audiology. 65438-0999 Beijing Capital Medical University first established the direction of biomedical engineering audiology, and trained 6-8 graduates every year. In 2002, Zhejiang University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, located in Hangzhou, opened the undergraduate course of audiology. At the beginning of the course, 30 students are enrolled every year. In 2004, Shanghai East China Normal University set up a special education major. West China University of Medical Sciences and Wenzhou Medical College also offer audiology courses to otolaryngologists.
There are also some institutions that offer diplomas in audiology. For example, Beijing Union University offers three-year courses, and the School of Rehabilitation Science of Nanjing Vocational College of Speech Education offers several audiology courses.
China is in an extremely short period of professionals who can provide high-quality listening services. There are 1000 hearing health experts at different levels serving1370,000 people (1: 137000). Compared with the United States (1:9000), audiologists in China are extremely scarce. There are 65,438+03,000 full-time audiologists and thousands of hearing aid dealers in the United States, serving a population of 3,654,384+04 million.
In addition to the shortage of professionals, there is also a lack of financial support from the central government. This is because the Ministry of Education believes that audiology or audiology is not the main major in universities. Therefore, there is no designated student share or government funds allocated to audiology education. Universities need to reduce the share of other education courses in order to establish audiology education courses. Therefore, many audiology courses rely on funds donated by foreign countries to help the disabled financially. Due to lack of funds, some courses have been suspended, such as the master's course in otorhinolaryngology jointly organized by West China University of Medical Sciences and Dalhousie University in Canada.
Another reason for the lack is that many graduates of audiology are otolaryngologists, and their audiology is only a small part of medical practice courses. The turnover rate of professionals is high, and some graduates no longer engage in audiology after graduation. This deficiency is usually made up by short-term training courses organized by hearing aid/cochlear implant enterprises. In addition, some universities (such as First Medical University and West China University of Medical Sciences), professional organizations (such as Hearing Association) and non-profit organizations (such as China Rehabilitation Research Center for Deaf Children and Huaying Fishermen's Foundation) also hold short-term courses. Usually the short term is 2 to 5 days, and the long term is several months. Because audiology is not a medical major in China, the scope of work is not clearly defined. The range of services that audiologists can provide depends largely on the training level of individuals. The work of otolaryngologists usually involves electrophysiology and vestibular function examination. Hearing aid dealers often conduct pure tone hearing threshold tests, including air conduction, bone conduction, comfort threshold and discomfort threshold.
20 10 hearing aid fitters' grade examination was carried out in China, which was divided into three grades, from low to high, namely, Grade 4, Grade 3 and Grade 2, which defined the requirements of hearing aid fitters' knowledge, skills and abilities. Participants in the training must pass written and practical tests and meet a series of requirements.
As this qualification system is relatively new, all participants in the training are voluntarily enrolled. In Beijing, less than 200 dealers have obtained different degrees of qualification certification. In addition, audiology services in China do not require certificates. Most people who provide hearing aid services have limited training level and no uniform qualification requirements.