Students from universities around the country attended the Oticon Audiology Summer Camp held annually in Keystone, Colo. The program, in its eighth year in 2005, offers graduate students practical seminars and workshops on hearing aid testing, fitting, and counseling, as well as career and business/marketing seminars for budding entrepreneurs and clinicians alike.

The seventh annual Oticon Audiology Summer Camp was held in Keystone, Colo, during August. The event was designed to provide audiology graduate students with the opportunity to attend classes and participate in workshops that supplement the clinical instruction they are receiving during their university experience.

Ann Marie Tharpe of Vanderbilt University will return as a guest faculty member for the 2005 Audiology Summer Camp.

Along with the Oticon Training and Educational staff, students had the opportunity to hear from the three guest faculty members: Anne Marie Tharpe, PhD, of Vanderbilt University; Mark Flynn, PhD, of the Oticon central office in Copenhagen, Denmark; and Douglas Beck, PhD, of AudiologyOnline.

Course director, Donald Schum, PhD, opened the camp with a talk entitled “The Relevance of Human Factors”. Schum emphasized the need to view the hearing aid treatment process not just as series of technical steps but rather as a life-changing experience for the patient. This experience, when viewed from the patient’s perspective, has both positive and negative aspects. The effective clinician is one who can understand this reality. This talk served to set the tone for the week.

Mark Flynn provided important updates on directionality and on the relationships between hearing aids and cochlear implants, and Anne Marie Tharpe provided an effective overview of both pediatric assessment techniques and also pediatric case management. Douglas Beck provided updates on ENoG and on how the audiologist can be part of the operating room team. Additionally, Oticon staff members Curtis Williams, PhD, provided information on patient management; Jim Kothe, MS, presented an overview on trends in the hearing healthcare market; Creig Dunckel, MA, provided a look at problem-solving with non-linear hearing aids; and Nancy Palmere, BS, spoke on the use of marketing tools in the field of audiology.

Other talks and workshops covered such divergent topics as the interaction between compression and noise control techniques, counseling patients and family members about choosing technology, how to effectively establish fitting goals, and how to make the most of electronic patient counseling tools. The educational component of the Summer Camp concluded with a “Career Decision Making” seminar that provided candid experiences and observations of the faculty and staff on various facets of audiology, including working for school districts, private practice, audiology in hospital settings, industry, etc.

Gallaudet University’s Cynthia Compton (right), who was also a member of the 2003 Summer Camp faculty, will return along with Tharpe for this year’s program. She is pictured here with Oticon’s Henning Falster and Marija Mehelich.

In addition to the educational program, course coordinator Henning Falster oversaw a series of social and recreational activities, all designed to help these students from such varied places as New York City, Tucson, Ariz, and San Juan, Puerto Rico share their experiences. Events included the annual Summer Camp Olympics which pits student teams against each other in a variety of games like tug-of-war, frizbee throws, and races, as well as special dinners a tour of a working gold mine. The attendees are also provided with free time to enjoy the majestic mountain scenery.

Audiology Summer Camp 2005
The eight annual Oticon Audiology Summer Camp will take place July 30-August 4 in Keystone, Colo. The guest faculty will include Tharpe and Cynthia Compton-Conley, PhD, of Gallaudet University. Further information and an application form to attend the 2005 Audiology Summer Camp can be found on the Oticon website at www.oticonus.com.