The second event of the ‘Hearing Aid Applications Workshop’ organised by Medeniyet Hearing and Balance Student Club, one of the student clubs of our university, was held on 27 May 2023 with the cooperation of 6 hearing aid companies, namely Ear-Technic, Idis, May Hearing, Meders, Phonak, Ws Audiology companies. The event, held at Cevizli Campus, was free of charge and open to the participation of all our students, representatives of hearing aid companies and related healthcare professionals.
In the event, the importance of hearing aids was discussed in all aspects of public health. It was stated that in cases where hearing loss cannot be treated with medication or cannot be corrected by surgery, hearing aids can be used to provide hearing gain. In these cases, it was stated that hearing aids will make speech more intelligible and all auditory signals can be heard more easily. It was pointed out that hearing, which is an important human perception for people to communicate with each other, is also of great importance for inclusive education practices. The importance of hearing aids for ensuring access to education for hearing impaired students was emphasised.
Afterwards, a practical vocational training was carried out for the students of the Department of Audiology to gain knowledge and experience about the use of hearing aids. In the practical part, our students experienced all workshops by attending a different workshop every hour in groups. Hearing aid companies that supported the training provided information and practice to the participants about hearing aids. Students gained practical knowledge about brand-specific technologies, hearing aid features, use of brand software, assistive listening devices and accessories, and had the opportunity to practice ear impression taking.
In the application section, the participants gained practical application skills such as ear impression taking, ear mould making, hearing aid selection, hearing aid adjustment, verification of hearing aid gains with real ear measurement, testing the technical capacity of the hearing aid.
With the workshop, students also had the opportunity to meet and exchange ideas with colleagues and industry representatives working in the field. Based on the hearing aid sector, innovations in the health system were discussed. After the application, a kahoot quiz was organised in our conference hall with all our students about the applications and information they had seen that day, and the winning students were presented their gifts.
