SHERIDAN FLINT

Sheridan Flint works in health care which is not the intended primary focus of ILF grants, but her story is about seeking an opportunity for self improvement funded by a grant, and it is about community benefit which is an outcome that ILF seeks to foster. Sheridan's experiences might help your thinking if you plan to apply for an ILF grant.

Sheridan Flint is a Senior Audiologist/Senior Speech Pathologist at the Women's and Children's Hospital and she says...

Until the age of 15, I lived on a farm a few hours from Adelaide. I wasn't all that good at helping on the farm. I preferred to read and actually didn't mind going to school! I did know that I wanted to help people though. This desire to help others has taken me on a journey from a farm near a quiet country town across to Europe and back.

Around the time I headed off to Boarding School, a family friend experienced a stroke and afterwards had difficulty finding the right words to communicate. I decided I wanted to become a Speech Pathologist and help others with their communication. I completed my studies and began working in Mount Gambier. However, through my studies, I had also learned about hearing loss and the communication difficulties and social isolation people can experience. I decided that working with hearing impaired people was exactly what I wanted to do.

Now, as a cochlear implant Audiologist, I work with individuals who are Deaf and hearing impaired and support them in the life-changing decision to undergo surgery for a cochlear implant. In January 2009 I made a decision which changed my life.

On completion of the Master of Audiology, Flinders University 2007, I was employed as a Senior Audiologist working within the South Australia Public Adult Cochlear Implant Program. Over a two year period, I identified gaps in service provision, particularly communication rehabilitation services for adult patients after their cochlear implant. I experienced barriers in effectively implementing support for these patients and I was seeking new ideas to address these issues.

Receiving a Fellowship through the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust enabled me to observe communication rehabilitation services in cochlear implant centres across England, Denmark and Germany. The Trust also supported my attendance at the British Academy of Audiology national conference, Liverpool which enhanced my professional development.

My six week Fellowship allowed me to build professional connections and grow personally through independent travel and the challenges associated with this. The ability to compromise and be flexible are important leadership qualities and I certainly put these into practice throughout my Fellowship. I accepted all opportunities for meetings and clinical observations. I even completed phone interviews from my hire car in a Tesco parking lot!

As a result of the clinical knowledge I obtained during the Churchill Fellowship, I presented at the Audiology Australia XIX National Conference, Sydney, 2010. This enabled me to share my findings at a national level and potentially impact on services for adult cochlear implant patients not only in Adelaide but across Australia.

I currently work as a Senior Audiologist within the South Australian Paediatric Cochlear Implant Programme. I found that the communication rehabilitation strategies used within adult programs can also be applied to the teenage population. Since returning from the Fellowship, I have worked with teenagers to build their confidence and skills in listening through their cochlear implants.

Not satisfied with only supporting teenagers, I am also developing a Speech Pathology assessment service for the South Australian Paediatric Cochlear Implant Programme as this is a current gap in service provision. This will allow the cochlear implant team to monitor the communication development of Deaf and hearing impaired infants from three months-of-age to adulthood.

My Fellowship began with a desire to help others and the determination to do this. If you believe there is an area that requires further investigation in your industry, be creative and think big. Seek the opinions of professionals nationally and internationally but also share your knowledge in return.