Other Health Professions

Human Performance Specialists focus on the application of scientific processes to improve individual and team athletic performance, and decrease injury risk among all populations. These professionals may work across the breadth of scientific disciplines or be a specialist practitioner, who has training and/or applied experiences predominantly within one or more specific scientific discipline area(s) relevant to sport science, sports performance, and injury prevention.

Human Performance Specialists work with other healthcare specialists, such as athletic trainers, orthopedic surgeons, and team physicians, to maximize individual and team athletic success. Employment is often found with professional sports teams or collegiate athletic programs, and more opportunities will be available to those with advanced degrees in exercise physiology, biomechanics, or applied health science.

Consider the U of I Fitness, Health and Human Performance degree emphasis with the College of Education, Health and Human Sciences.

The Integrated Sports Medicine Movement Analysis Laboratory (ISMMAL) and the Exercise Physiology Research Laboratory on the Moscow campus provide excellent opportunities for students to pursue undergraduate research that will enhance their applications to graduate degree programs previously mentioned.

Audiology is the science of hearing, balance and related disorders. Audiologists are experts in the nonmedical diagnosis and management of disorders of the auditory and balance systems. They frequently work with other medical specialists, speech-language pathologists, educators, engineers, scientists and allied health professionals and technicians. In industrial audiology, audiologists plan and execute programs of hearing conservation for workers.

Clinical audiologists work in a variety of settings and can specialize in pediatrics, geriatrics, balance, cochlear implants, hearing aids, tinnitus and auditory processing, among other issues. Audiologists provide a number of services including:

• Evaluating hearing
• Counseling patients and their families and caregivers
• Fitting hearing aids
• Evaluating and treating balance disorders
• Determining an individual’s need for assistive devices
• Teaching communication strategies, including speech reading

Some colleges and universities offer an undergraduate degree in communication sciences and disorders (CSD); however, if you do not major in CSD, you may need to complete some prerequisites before applying to graduate school.

Audiologists must earn a doctoral degree (an AuD) from a program accredited by the Council on Academic Accreditation and get a passing score on a national examination.

Those individuals who have a graduate degree with major emphasis in audiology (e.g. AuD) may become certified by the Council for Clinical Certification, which issues Certificates of Clinical Competence for both audiology and speech-language pathology.

In almost all states, a current license in audiology or speech-language pathology is also required to practice.

(source: Explore Health Careers - Audiology)

Speech-Language Pathology is the study and treatment of human communication and its disorders. Speech-language pathologists work with the full range of human communication to evaluate, diagnose and treat speech, language and swallowing disorders in individuals of all ages, from infants to the elderly. Speech-language pathologists often work as part of a team, which may include teachers, physicians, audiologists, psychologists, social workers and rehabilitation counselors.

Their responsibilities may include:

• Preparing future professionals in colleges and universities
• Managing agencies, clinics or private practices
• Engaging in research to enhance knowledge about human communication processes
• Developing new methods and equipment to evaluate problems. Establish more effective treatments
• Investigating behavioral patterns associated with communication disorders
• Working with employees to improve communication with their customers

Some colleges and universities offer an undergraduate degree in communication sciences and disorders (CSD); however, if you do not major in CSD, you may need to complete some prerequisites before applying to graduate school.

Speech-language pathologists must:

• Earn a graduate degree in speech-language pathology from a program accredited by the Council on Academic Accreditation
• Complete a supervised postgraduate clinical fellowship
• Get a passing score on a national examination

Those individuals who have a graduate degree with major emphasis in speech-language pathology may become certified by the Council for Clinical Certification, which issues certificates of clinical competence for both audiology and speech-language pathology.

For more information about specific master's programs in speech-language pathology, please visit GradSchoolHub.

(source: Explore Health Careers - Speech-Language Pathology)