Advanced Clinical Optometry Practice

This subject has the following teaching availabilities in 2011:

For the purposes of considering requests for Reasonable Adjustments under the Disability Standards for Education (Cwth 2005), and Students Experiencing Academic Disadvantage Policy, academic requirements for this subject are articulated in the Subject Description, Subject Objectives, Generic Skills and Assessment Requirements for this entry.

The University is dedicated to provide support to those with special requirements. Further details on the disability support scheme can be found at the Disability Liaison Unit website: http://www.services.unimelb.edu.au/disability/

Note: This subject is only available to students enrolled in the Doctor of Optometry.

This subject consists almost exclusively of clinical placements that require the student to consolidate their didactic and clinical knowledge learnt in the first three years of the O.D. so as to fully develop their professional patient management skills as an optometrist. The year-long subject of 44 weeks consists of four equally divided 11 week quarters in which students will undertake clinical rotations to gain both primary care and specialist optometry clinical practice skills. Students will undertake a minimum of two quarters of clinical training based in the central University of Melbourne teaching clinics and metropolitan Melbourne practice and hospital placements. They will undertake a quarter at an overseas placement site and a further quarter at rural, or specialist practice placements, both in Victoria and nationally. Students will gain experience in the area of primary care, contact lenses, paediatrics, ocular disease, clinical therapeutic management of disease, low vision and binocular vision clinical specialities during their 44 weeks of placements. In addition, students will take part in smaller tutorial groups, which interact both face-to-face and on-line, to discuss professional ethics and practice management approaches, to debate key issues that face the profession of Optometry in the future, to continue to consider the meeting of scientific endeavour and clinical optometry, and to discuss interesting clinical cases.

Upon completion of this subject students should:

have attained expert competency in clinical ocular examination using current best-practice methods, enabling them to fully assess and manage the health and visual performance of their patient;
have an expert knowledge of best practice management strategies to enable the safe and effective use of ocular therapeutic drugs;
have interpersonal and communication skills, both written and verbal, that allow them to establish and maintain professional relationships with their patients, professional colleagues and the general community;
have the skills and knowledge to be competent in the practice of optometry at a level that enables them to achieve and sustain registration with the appropriate professional bodies;
have the skills and knowledge required to manage the establishment, planning, promotion, finances, operations and workforce of an optometric practice.
have a strongly developed sense of professional and ethical responsibility for patients, colleagues and the community generally, and be aware of the moral and legal responsibilities of professional practice;
have attained advanced skills in problem identification, and developed expertise in applying these skills to scientific problems in the visual and clinical sciences, as well as to particular problems presented by patients;
be prepared to take a leadership role in the advancement of optometry on a global stage, both in clinical and research spheres; and
have a sense of intellectual curiosity and a desire for lifelong learning, with the ability to adapt to scientific, technological and social change, and a capacity to be creative and innovative.

Assessment of clinical performance during each rotation. At week 5 in each clinical rotation, progress will be assessed and graded by clinical teaching instructors (2.5% for each of the four rotations, representing 10% of the final mark for this subject). At the end of each clinical rotation clinical performance will be assessed and graded by clinical teaching instructors (12.5% for each rotation, representing 50% of the final mark for this subject).

Two 3-hour written examinations scheduled in the middle of the teaching year, representing 30% of the final mark for this subject.

Two 15-minute oral case presentations scheduled in the middle and at the end of the teaching year (5% each, representing 10% of the final mark for this subject).

As per the prescribed texts for the subjects: Preclinical Optometry; Applied Clinical Training; Clinical Optometry Practice; plus:

Thal, L S (Ed) (2010). Business Aspects of Optometry: Association of Practice Management Educators. 3rd Edition. Pub. Butterworth-Heinemann

This subject is not available as a breadth subject.

Upon completion of this subject students should:

have highly developed written and oral communication skills;
have enhanced time management skills, in particular a capacity to manage competing demands on time, and professional focus in clinical practice;
be able to develop new concepts of how to manage clinical problems based on new knowledge obtained;
be able to independently advance your professional expertise and knowledge in optometry;
be able to plan strategies for improving the management of information in the workplace;
be able to work with colleagues to develop best practice in the delivery of eye care;
have developed a sound ethical and social framework so as to contribute to the wider society and the profession;
have acquired sound understanding of business practice matters and leadership skills to be capable to run an optometric practice; and
have developed skills enabling them to take future leadership roles in the profession.