Examine and clean patients' ear canals.

“Examine and clean patients' ear canals.” is a core task performed by Audiologists. Among the occupation's 22 rated tasks, workers place it 13th by importance (#10 most important). About 100% of workers say it is relevant to their job.

This is a single occupation-specific task statement from O*NET. The figures below describe how central the task is to the job and what independent studies measure about AI and this kind of work — not a prediction that the task will be automated.

Work activities this task rolls up to

O*NET groups concrete tasks into broader work activities shared across many occupations.

• Examine people or animals to assess health conditions or physical characteristics. in Inspecting Equipment, Structures, or Materials
• Administer basic health care or medical treatments. in Assisting and Caring for Others

AI exposure

The OpenAI / Eloundou “GPTs are GPTs” study rates this task E0. No direct exposure — current language models give little or no time savings on this task.

Exposure measures whether a model could meaningfully speed the task up — it is an estimate of overlap with model capabilities, not a measure of whether the work will be done by software. The study's intermediate score (β) for this task is 0.00. Automation potential label: T0.

Other tasks in this occupation

• Maintain patient records at all stages, including initial and subsequent evaluation and treatment activities. · importance 5.0
• Evaluate hearing and balance disorders to determine diagnoses and courses of treatment. · importance 4.9
• Fit, dispense, and repair assistive devices, such as hearing aids. · importance 4.8
• Administer hearing tests and examine patients to collect information on type and degree of impairment, using specialized instruments and electronic equipment. · importance 4.8
• Monitor patients' progress and provide ongoing observation of hearing or balance status. · importance 4.6
• Instruct patients, parents, teachers, or employers in communication strategies to maximize effective receptive communication. · importance 4.6
• Counsel and instruct patients and their families in techniques to improve hearing and communication related to hearing loss. · importance 4.5
• Participate in conferences or training to update or share knowledge of new hearing or balance disorder treatment methods or technologies. · importance 4.3
• Refer patients to additional medical or educational services, if needed. · importance 4.3
• Recommend assistive devices according to patients' needs or nature of impairments. · importance 4.2
• Advise educators or other medical staff on hearing or balance topics. · importance 4.2
• Program and monitor cochlear implants to fit the needs of patients. · importance 4.2
• Plan and conduct treatment programs for patients' hearing or balance problems, consulting with educators, physicians, nurses, psychologists, speech-language pathologists, and other health care personnel, as necessary. · importance 4.1
• Educate and supervise audiology students and health care personnel. · importance 4.1

See all tasks on the Audiologists page.

Sources for this page

Every figure above traces to a named public dataset and the exact release below — not hand-written opinion. See the full methodology for what each measure does and does not mean.

• O*NET 30.3 U.S. Department of Labor / National Center for O*NET Development
• “GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.) arXiv 2303.10130 OpenAI / academic

Data compiled June 2, 2026. Figures are estimates, not advice.

@misc{singulariki-task-7870,
  title  = {Examine and clean patients' ear canals.},
  author = {{Singulariki}},
  year   = {2026},
  note   = {O*NET 30.3; “GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.) arXiv 2303.10130. Accessed June 7, 2026},
  url    = {https://singulariki.com/tasks/task-7870}
}