Spokane Falls Community College offers a two-year program to prepare hearing instrument specialists for immediate employment in hearing health care establishments. The program includes study in physiology and anatomy, social science and technical hearing instrument courses. The Hearing Instrument Specialist program is primarily an online low residency program, meaning students complete coursework online with occasional meetings on-campus to verify skills and competencies.

Hearing instrument specialists find a variety of professional experiences available to them, including independent contracted employment, professional consulting, establishment ownership and technical support of related professions. After successful completion of the program, all educational requirements of the state (Washington State Department of Health) will have been satisfied, pursuant to state licensing as a duly authorized “Hearing Instrument Fitter/Dispenser.”

Non-Local Students: Students who reside in Spokane have weekly on-campus labs. Students who live outside of the Spokane area work with mentors who are licensed hearing instrument dispensers. These mentors assist the students in weekly lab activities.  Close communication between the mentor, student and faculty is important in order for a student to succeed in this challenging program.

Admission Requirements:

• Out of state students please refer to the tuition of "non-resident with waiver" section of web catalog.
• Ability to attend six on campus three-day sessions.
• Student must have secured a mentoring site if unable to make daily commute to college.
• Completion of HIS enrollment packet found at www.spokanefalls.edu/his

1. Assess the presenting problems and needs of hearing aid patients.
2. Test and analyze hearing.
3. Prescribe and analyze hearing aids.
4. Fit, adjust and service hearing aids.
5. Educate patients and maintain professional relationships.

Nationally, job placement opportunities for this program’s graduates are excellent. This field lacks a source of formally educated and trained professionals in the field of “hearing instrument specialist technologies”. Currently, only two programs offer a college degree in hearing instrument sciences in the state of Washington. These programs have been developed with the guidance of a cooperative government and industry published skills standards study. This field’s need for our students is considered to be statistically high both in the state of Washington and throughout the nation. The continued growth in an ever-increasing aging population suggests an increasing need for hearing health care professionals well into the future.

Graduates of this program can expect that employment opportunities will be readily available to them, though relocation will be necessary. National multi-cultural employment/population trends also speak well of all students’ employment opportunities regardless of race, ethnicity or gender. While Washington State’s licensing requirements are among the nations most rigorous, additional education requirements may be required outside of Washington. For this reason, students are encouraged to contact the state certification/licensure boards in the state where they are seeking employment for additional requirements.