Well, competency is over and done with. For those of you who might be interested in how things got at UHCO clinic I'll sum up. (I'm just glad I get to go to the white coat ceremony now.. yes, UHCO is starting a white coat ceremony starting with my class)
Station one: history, VA, EOM, cover test, NPC, pupils
I didn't have any major problems here. I did forget to ask about headaches on the Patient Ocular History, but I believe that was my only boo boo. The attending was breathing over my shoulder while I was doing cover test and pupils which made me think I was missing something, but it only made me more nervous. She made some rude comments to some of my other friends, but never said a word to me. (I guess that means I did good.. who knows)
Station two: retinoscopy and refraction. (including JCC, monocular and binocular subjective, prism balance,etc)
No major snafu's here either. I was shocked that I actually had a SPHERICAL patient.
😱 Made life easier.. although I had a temporary brain fart on how to fish for cyl since I hardly ever get spherical patients, but I remembered eventually. Finished the station in plenty of time and got to chat with our peds lab attending (who I'd never met before).. She's cool... y'all will like her.
Station three: phorias,stereoacuity, and AC/A
The boredom station. My only mistake here was forgetting to put the lamp over my near point card for some of the tests, but I had the lights on so I think I only lost like three points on the whole station for that. I had a cool attending here too (since he was one of my clinic lab attendings he knew me already) [always a plus] Breezed through this station and had a few minutes to chat to my patient and get geared up for the mother of all stations...........
Station Four: Slit lamp exam, Goldmann tonometry, 78D lens, and BIO (all in less than twenty minutes)
I know that sounds like a lot of time. But, when you're just learning it's a LOT to do in twenty minutes or less. I'm sure by the end of the summer after I've seen like my 80th patient I'll laugh at how slow I used to be.. but for now I'm just happy I finished on time. My nerves really kicked in on this station!! I had no major problems with my slit lamp exam. I did slide off the pupil on high mag when I was trying to look at cells and flare in the anterior chamber.. so i had to start that part over, but again my attending was really cool and she talked me through the whole thing. Tonometry I was a little worried about. My dilated patient sat for tonometry and she had the smallest eyes I had ever seen. So, I dropped both eyes with proparcaine so she wouldn't squint so much and it seemed to help (keep that in mind for next year y'all). I got a reading on the second try since the first time she blinked me off her eye. (it happens) I tried to adjust my jacket at this point since I was having hard time moving while sitting on my white coat (the attending thought I was fidgeting from being nervous so we had a good laugh over that later) 78D lens is not hard for me normally, but again my patients eyes were puny so it took a second to get lined but, but once I did the views I got were great. My hands were shaking and if you've ever done 78 you know how important a steady view is. At one point the attending reached up and held my arm to steady me and told me to keep going. (I told you she was sweet) Some attendings are young and remember what you're going through and really try to help you relax. So, I finished 78 and moved over to BIO. I had to do BIO on the same girl with the tiny eyes. I finished BIO after getting 8 or so views including the posterior pole. It took us awhile to find a vortex vein or cilliary nerve (what we're told to find during the test) but we keep going until we found something. After it was over the attending complimented me on doing well with a somewhat difficult patient (did I mention she was photophobic??) and we were chatting so much I almost forgot to record my results for the station. I was just so relieved at that point to be DONE!
I got my scores today at lunch.
Station one : Pass
Station two: Pass
Station Three: Pass
Station Four: Pass
Yippeee !!!
ONly three people in our class failed even one station. Our class kicked ass apparently. Last years class I think there were like six or seven people that had to repeat a station.
Hey Hema1013... were DONE!!!
