Audiologists' awareness and perspective on immigrant hearing health

The phenomenon of migration has been directing people to different geographies for centuries and continues today due to economic, social, and political reasons. Turkey's geographical location has led to an increase in the number of migrants and refugees, which has resulted in communication difficulties in health services. Particularly, it is noted that the number of Syrian refugees has reached a significant level in Turkey, and they experience communication problems when benefiting from health services. It is emphasized that the importance of health communication and that the quality of communication between health personnel and patients increases health services, and the role of audiologists and the importance of communication in health problems such as hearing loss are emphasized. However, it is stated that immigrants and refugees cannot benefit from health services sufficiently and health communication is not carried out appropriately for these groups. In this context, the thesis study aims to understand audiologists' awareness and perspectives on immigrant hearing health. Graduate audiologists will answer questions about immigrant health by participating in the survey titled "Audiologists' Awareness and Perspectives on Immigrant Hearing Health." The survey will also include demographic information of the participants such as gender, age and years of experience in the profession. Participants will have the option of completing the survey on a computer in the clinic or at home (computer or phone). The scales included in the survey will be related to audiologists' awareness and perspectives on refugee hearing health. In conclusion, this study shows that the demographic characteristics of audiologists affect refugees' awareness and attitudes towards hearing health. In particular, it was determined that audiologists who had previously encountered refugees with hearing problems had more awareness about the issue than audiologists who had not encountered refugees with hearing problems before. These findings indicate that audiologists' professional development programs and training should be tailored to demographic characteristics.