Off duty- Shaani Graves

Audiology Manager & Audiology Student Coordinator, Monash Health
What does your role entail?
As the Audiology Manager I am responsible for the operational and strategic direction of the audiology service at Monash Health. I manage a team of 14 Audiologists and four administrative staff, which is large for a diagnostic Audiology service in a hospital setting. Monash Audiology has three sites, Monash Medical Centre Clayton, Monash Medical Centre Moorabbin, and Cranbourne Integrated Care Centre. There is also a small satellite service aligned with ENT clinic at Casey hospital in Berwick.
As the Audiology student coordinator I am responsible for audiology student clinical placements provided by the department. In 2013, in excess of 250 clinical placement days were provided by our team. I also ensure that the Audiology clinical educators receive the appropriate training and support required to provide high quality clinical supervision.
Why did you decide to become an Audiologist?
As a 12 year old, close family friends had very young children who were diagnosed with significant permanent hearing losses. As there were no paediatric diagnostic services overseas, the families travelled to Melbourne to access diagnostic audiology services and stayed with my family through the diagnostic and habilitation process.
What inspires you most in your job?
The Audiology team at Monash Health inspire me. There is a great feeling of collegiality in our department. We work together with great cohesion to promote Audiology and ensure best outcomes for our patients.
What are the challenges you face?
At the most basic level the challenge is to raise the profile of audiology as a profession and to raise awareness within this organisation of the services that the audiology department provides.
Another challenge is finding enough time in the day to do all the things that must be completed, whilst ensuring that I maintain a balance between the administrative and scientific advances that could be implemented in the day-to-day running of the department.
The other challenge is in being proactive rather than reactive in a large organisation. I find I am often responding to directives from the organisation and finding a way that my team and its environment can accommodate the policy direction.
The audiology team also has a vision for the future as Monash Health grows and expands. The challenge is to be an advocate for the discipline and harness the resources of this large organisation to make it happen.
What would you most like to see improved in your profession?
I would like to see increased awareness about audiology and what Audiologists do. Not only for the general public but also amongst other health professionals to ensure more timely and appropriate referrals are made for assessment and habilitation if required.
When you have time off how do you chill out?
I enjoy gardening, cycling, reading and spending time with my three sons and husband. The majority of my weekends are spent supporting my boys’ sporting commitments.
Describe the perception versus the reality of your job?
Many people might think that working in a hospital means doing hearing tests for doctors with little independence. The reality is that Monash Audiology functions in its own right as an allied health department in the network and sees over 6800 patients per year. While we work closely with Ear Nose and Throat Doctors and other specialists, we assess and manage the patients we see. A significant focus is on early diagnosis of hearing loss, with on average one new paediatric diagnosis of permanent hearing loss being made every five days. Paediatric work comprises 70 per cent of our caseload with the remainder being adults.
Shaani Graves has been an Audiologist for 22 years and is the Audiology Manager and Audiology Student Coordinator at Monash Health. Monash Health is the largest health network in Victoria and provides care to a quarter of Melbourne’s population. Shaani has an Advanced Diploma of Business Management and is also an Honorary Fellow of the Department of Audiology and Speech Pathology, Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences at the University of Melbourne.
She has extensive experience with paediatric diagnostic audiology and has a particular interest in clinical supervision and learning as well as clinical educator support. In addition, Shaani has collaborated with Audiology Australia and the TELL Centre to develop audiology specific supervision scenarios which are available to support audiology interns and audiology clinical educators into the future.