Bridging Coursework Knowledge to Audiology Clinical Practice: An Evidence-Based Approach to Counseling Education.

PURPOSE: Effective counseling is central to person-centered audiologic care. However, researchers have consistently demonstrated gaps in students' preparedness and confidence in providing counseling services. There is also variability in classroom counseling learning and the supervision they receive from their clinical preceptors. This warrants a more intentional, structured, and evidence-based counseling training program that can better bridge the gap between knowledge obtained in the coursework and the ability to provide effective counseling in clinical practice. This tutorial synthesized evidence-based concepts, instructional strategies, and evaluation methods for designing and delivering counseling education in clinical audiology programs. The goal was to provide educators with a framework and practical resources for developing counseling curricula that promote student confidence and competence, ultimately supporting more effective, person-centered clinical care. A brief quality improvement project was included as an example to demonstrate the implications of such a design. CONCLUSIONS: An intentional and evidence-based approach to counseling education can contribute to bridging the gap and help align students' and preceptors' expectations. Through the integration of structured instruction, experiential learning, and systematic evaluation, programs can also enhance students' confidence in providing person-centered audiologic care. SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIAL: https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.33485932.