Oticon summer camp attendees take a break from sessions.

Students and recent graduates representing the next generation of hearing care professionals recently participated in two unique summer camps that combined seminars, discussions, and workshops with opportunities to share experiences and network with leading researchers, experienced practitioners, Oticon staff members, and other new hearing care professionals.

At the eighth Eriksholm Summer Camp on the grounds of the Eriksholm Research Centre in Denmark, 56 new audiologists representing 27 countries, including four representatives of US audiology programs, participated in a 3-day educational event sponsored by the Oticon Foundation.

In Keystone, Colo, 99 audiology graduate students from 39 US universities joined guest faculty and Oticon staff members for the thirteenth annual Oticon Summer Camp, a 6-day educational program that focused on the human side of the fitting process. The two knowledge-sharing gatherings offered new and student audiologists opportunities to explore their role in empowering people with hearing loss to live active, vital lives.

“Our goal is to give students who are the future of our profession a forum in which they can experience the kind of knowledge sharing and professional interaction that they may have limited access to in academic or preceptor settings,” said Don Schum, PhD, vice president of audiology and professional relations, Oticon, Somerset, NJ, who developed the US summer camp program. ”Oticon summer camps provide a broad range of lecture and workshop materials designed to supplement and complement the education that students receive in their university programs.”

Among the highlights of the US summer program were presentations by guest faculty members Brian Kreisman, PhD, of Towson University, and Eileen Rall, AuD, of the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia that focused on developing core counseling skills and the key elements of managing pediatric patients. Therese Velde, AuD, of the Ida Institute introduced camp participants to the newest motivational tools developed by the nonprofit organization. Dr Schum discussed the use of patient variability to enhance the fitting process and management of patients from special hearing populations.

Highlights of the Eriksholm summer camp included sessions on Collecting Insights by the Ida Institute that featured discussion of fostering better understanding of the human dynamics associated with hearing loss and the newest practical tools to facilitate patient-centered care. Joel Beilin, senior director of audiology and algorithms at Oticon A/S presented Trends in Audiology. Summer camp participants also enjoyed a behind-the-scenes look at Oticon’s research capabilities and the ways in which the researchers, scientists, and audiologists at the Eriksholm Research Centre apply the newest research findings to develop hearing solutions.

At both camp sessions, Oticon audiologists and trainers rounded off participants’ summer camp experience with a variety of hands-on workshops and knowledge-sharing sessions.

“We are all in the profession for the same reason: we want people to live full, actives lives in which their hearing loss is not an issue”, says Husmita Ratanjee, audiologist and international trainer at Oticon A/S, who developed the Eriksholm camp curriculum. “Oticon summer camps challenge the newest generation of hearing care professionals to think about and discuss how to use the research, knowledge, and technology we have at our disposal to achieve this shared goal.”

[Source: Oticon]