Skip to main content
Department of Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery Otolaryngology
  1. Department of Otolaryngology
  2. Education & Training
  3. Joint Doctoral Program in Audiology
  4. Clinical Experiences at UC San Diego

Clinical Experiences at UC San Diego

Second year AuD students at UC San Diego participate in a busy neurotology clinic to varying degrees in a variety of clinical experiences. Students can follow patients from initial assessments, to diagnosis, to surgery and follow-up treatment during the course of the year. They interact with neurotologists, nurse practitioners, medical students, residents and fellows, and professionals in interdisciplinary healthcare teams. With 100% supervision, each student rotates through a variety of clinics where they learn to take thorough case histories; administer and interpret tests of hearing and balance; formulate treatment plans; advise, educate and counsel patients; and provide treatment for a primarily adult population.

Each student is assigned to an Audiology Clinic each quarter with one preceptor. Each student rotates through additional clinical clinics including Balance, and Preceptorship in Neurotology. Typical experiences include:

Audiology Clinic

  • Comprehensive audiologic assessments:
    • Puretone audiometry
    • Speech recognition threshold
    • Word recognition testing
    • Immittance testing
    • Multifrequency/multicomponent tympanometry
    • Tests of malingering
    • Otoacoustic emission measurements
  • Evoked potentials
    • Brainstem Auditory Evoked Response (BAER)
    • Electrocochleography (EcoG)
    • Vestibular Evoked Myogenic Potential (VEMP)
  • Ototoxic Monitoring
  • Audiologic Rehabilitation
    • Assist with prescription/dispensing of hearing aids using real-ear verification
    • Troubleshoot and make hearing aid repairs
    • Patient orientation and fittings for osseointegrated hearing systems (eg Ponto, Baha, Osia)
    • Patient and family member counseling re: listening strategies
    • Selection of assistive listening devices
    • Tinnitus evaluations and treatments
    • Provision of noise protection and musician earphones
    • Cochlear implant evaluations, mapping and reprogramming in adults up to 90+ years old.

Balance Clinic Rotation

  • Videonystagmography
  • Vestibular rehabilitation
  • Video Head Impulse Test

Preceptorship in Otolaryngology

All students complete a 10-week rotation with a neurotologist in a busy clinic alongside medical students, residents, and fellows. The experience includes clinical observation of pre- and post-surgical patients being evaluated and treated for outer/middle/inner ear disorders and balance disorders and treatments. Students observe ear surgeries such as stapedectomies, mastoidectomies, tympanoplasties, tumor removal, and cochlear and auditory brainstem implantations.

Additional Opportunities may include participation in:

UCSD Student-Run Free Clinic Project, in partnership with the community, provides accessible, quality healthcare for the underserved in a respectful environment in which students, health professionals, patients, and community members learn from one another.