In fact, she is the only audiologist for the entire NWT and the Kitikmeot region in Nunavut.

Alicia Dennis, 19, will be offering assistance in the audiology department in the NWT when she finishes school in two years. - Chris Puglia/NNSL photo

It's a massive area for just one person to cover, said Doig.

Doig's duties include hearing assessments, hearing aid prescriptions and hearing aid fitting. She is also responsible for diagnostic work.

"This is really like three kinds of clinics all rolled into one," said Doig.

There is also no lack of work. At a minimum, Doig said, she handles approximately 300 hearing aids per year.

She is also on the road 81 days of the year conducting clinics. When she is gone to other communities, or on holidays services, in Yellowknife shuts down because there is no one to cover her shifts.

"Our waiting list keeps growing and growing," she said.

Currently people who need to see Doig for a non-priority case can expect to wait six to seven months.

"We're just starting to book people in who were referred in May and June," said Doig.

Locums from Alberta have been hired to conduct a few travel clinics to give Doig more time in Yellowknife.

"When I am gone there is absolutely no coverage," said Doig.

In the 2-1/2 years she has been the audiologist in Yellowknife, Doig said, there has never been any qualified help hired to assist her.

"It's not competitive. They need to do more to attract people, that's the bottom line," said Doig.

"That's not what attracted me, but that's what is going to get me help."

Help on the way

There is some hope on the horizon though.

Alicia Dennis, a 2001 graduate of St. Patrick high school, is working towards employment here in the city.

Dennis is two months into a two-year hearing aid practitioner program through Grant McEwan College in Edmonton.

She is taking the classes through distance education and upon completion she's guaranteed a job with Stanton Territorial Hospital.

Dennis will be employed as an audiometric technician, a position created specifically geared for Dennis' future expertise.

"I went for the interview first and they offered me the job and then I signed up for the program," said 19-year-old Dennis.

Her duties will include testing hearing, programming hearing aids, fitting hearing aids and some limited diagnostic work.

Dennis was born in the North and raised in Yellowknife. She said she sees this as an opportunity to give back to her home.

"The North has offered me a lot of opportunities," she said.

She is also excited about the prospect of travelling to other Northern communities.

Doig is excited too. Dennis will help to free her up to do additional diagnostic work and begin to chip away at the waiting list.

"The Canadian Hard of Hearing Association has really come on board, because when I am gone there is a real lag in service," she said.

"I just wish it was happening sooner."