How to Equip Yourself to Follow Ethical Practices

By Melissa Ferrello and Devon Weist

This article is a part of the March/April 2022, Volume 34, Number 2, Audiology Today issue. 

As our profession of audiology continues to grow, evolve, and remain impactful in the health-care arena, audiologists must practice ethically. The topic of ethics is not something unique to the field of audiology. Turn on the news or log into your phone’s news app and headlines pop up regularly related to this very topic. In theory, everyone seems to understand that ethics are important. However, many times, lines are often blurred and pushed to their limits.  

How many times do we take our annual Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) compliance training, only to encounter situations that weren’t like any of the scenarios depicted? In addition to keeping up to date with the latest diagnostic and treatment standards for hearing and balance-related disorders, everyday events are occurring around us that challenge our core beliefs and make us question our own internal moral and ethical standards. How are we to ethically protect our profession and the patients we serve as a whole?

The crux of ethics is not what to do once you have decided something is unethical—it is deciding at what point something is unethical. Is a situation, activity, or person’s conduct crossing the line of inappropriate professional activities or putting patients at risk? Is there one set of rules that applies to all patients and clinical encounters?

While it is probably a safe bet to say that every situation is different, there are resources to guide ethical practices including state licensure laws, HIPAA, and scope of practice and code of ethics documents from professional organizations. State licensure boards and independent legal counsel also may be helpful avenues for further research (American Academy of Audiology Code of Ethics, October 2019). Members who abide by the Academy’s Code of Ethics adhere to professional standards and a high level of integrity.

The Academy Ethical Practices Committee (EPC) strives to educate and increase member awareness about the Code of Ethics. The committee reviews and updates the Code of Ethics as needed, formulates reviews, and updates policies and procedures for the review of complaints. The EPC also reviews public and member complaints alleging unethical behaviors or conduct of members, while also answering questions from members and consumers regarding ethical scenarios. The committee cannot provide legal advice, licensing advice, or act in cases where there is active litigation.