Eye Care and PA's

[TomOD]

Hi,

I work closely with a number of PA's locally. Recently I have been contacted to speak to the local PA school on eye care to the students. This would be during the ophthalmology portion of their curriculum which, I think, is in the Spring.

My question is what, as PA's, would be the most important areas to cover related to eye care. Obviously, basic medical care and emergencies are important. But what else?

Also the chief of the dept (a PA) would like me to teach the biomicroscope (slit lamp). I think this would be very valuable.

Any comments would be appreciated.

P.S. I have a largely ocular disease practice and we have also talked about putting some students in my office for an elective 2 week externship.

Tom

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[deleted6669]

THE EXTERNSHIP WOULD BE GREAT!
make sure to cover fb removal, iritis, conjunctivitis(all types), chemical exposures, glaucoma, use of tonopen and slit lamp. that would probably cover 90% of what we see in the e.d.
thanks for helping out with pa education

 

[rdennisjr]

TomOD:

I'm just finishing up my two weeks of hands-on Opthalmology and think it's a great rotation - your PA students will find it of great use. I'm not sure about civilian programs but the military finds this rotation pretty critical from both trauma and medical standpoints.

covering the basic acuity, FV, SLE, and direct opthalmascope is good. Probably the most critcal however is the history and seeing 'normal so that they know when to call you and what to do before calling/sending. We also see a lot of FB, conjunctivitis, Corneal abrasions, catracts, Glaucoma, etc etc etc. We've done some laser work but I'm not sure how common that is in the civilian world.

Anyhow - thanks for contributing to the training program!

Dennis

 

[JPNSU]

I've never heard of physician assistants and eye care....Hey if it makes the ophthalmologist more money...I am all for it

 

[rdennisjr]

I've not heard of but a few opthal PA's and most of those were surgical positions, but all PA's need a good ability to examine and understand what they find optically.