There is a worldwide shortage of audiologists and the lack of hearing health services is often greatest in remote areas.

In Australia, a high number of vacant positions exist in rural and remote areas because these are often considered less attractive areas to work. As such, new graduates are often recruited to positions where little support is provided for supervision and ongoing professional development. This leads to a high level of stress and burn-out and a high turn-over rate of graduates within these positions.

In other cases, non-specialist health workers are employed within positions that bridge or encompass specialist areas and opportunities to up-skill are needed.

In developing countries (where the profession of audiology is not established) similar models are employed where new graduates who have been trained in overseas programs are either working:

• in unsupervised environments; or
• with professionals who have not been fully trained in the area of hearing health (but are none-the-less undertaking diagnostic and rehabilitative assessments in standard and complex areas, such as cochlear implantation).