Do you have a good working knowledge of your state’s licensing laws and regulations? If you do, can you answer the following question:
What is the purpose of the licensing laws/regulations in your state?
ANSWERS: (You may choose more than one.)
1. To protect the consumer by ensuring dispensing professionals have an adequate knowledge to safely dispense hearing devices.
2. To give the public the impression that the state (dispensing board, commission, Health Department, etc.) is working for them.
3. To protect dispensing professionals from irate clients, justified or not.
4. To create roadblocks to people desiring to acquire a license to legally dispense instruments as a way of protecting the livelihood of currently licensed professionals.
5. To favor one group of Dispensing professionals over another.
Answer number one is what I hope is the correct answer in every state and the basis for all decisions made by individual state boards, commissions, or departments. But if this is so, how does having a bachelor’s degree, in ANY subject, make a person more qualified to dispense than one who does not hold such a degree?
I can understand (but don’t agree) if a state requires a professional to hold an audiology degree, an ACA degree, or some similar higher education diploma germane to our field. What I can not understand is the requirement that a dispenser must/can have any-old higher education degree. Does such a degree make the holder more competent, more honest, more knowledgeable, more likely to be a caring person? I don’t think so!!
I was a dispenser for almost thirty years. I held dispensing licenses in three states. I was President of the AZ State Society, on the state licensing board for over ten years, and was Chairman for four. I was Chairman of the state’s Exam writing committee, an examiner for the licensing exam. and provided the state my observations as to the validity of complaints brought before the State Health Department. I was also BC-HIS certified for twenty-five years and on the By Laws committee of IHS. But for all of this, I am barred from practicing in a number of states for the lack of a College degree.
For a period of time, I owned a dispensing office in Nevada where I employed an excellent dispenser, although I was personally barred from working in that office for the lack of a Degree. But, if I had had a degree in Horticulture or Ancient Languages I would have met the education requirements to dispense hearing aids in Nevada, where I currently reside. Is this logical?
I say all of this, not to wage a campaign to get myself another state license but to raise a voice for common sense. States (people) should make and enforce rules that are designed to protect the public, not to protect those who are already licensed, or to take sides in disputes between professional organizations. Legislation can not be written that will guarantee, before the fact, the honesty or the integrity of a practitioner. It can and should however, guarantee initial competence and afford the public a method to bring improper conduct to the attention of impartial officials.
What are your thoughts?
