ICO Externships??

[Oligator]

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I have recently heard through the grape vine that ICO makes students do an externship at a Walmart?! Is this really true???

 

[janedoe88]

I have recently heard through the grape vine that ICO makes students do an externship at a Walmart?! Is this really true???

lol oh no, the horror...

 

[Oligator]

lol oh no, the horror...

Anyone have a constructive comment who cares about receiving the best education possible filled with pathology, as opposed to pumping out quick routine exams??

 

[Shnurek]

They want to prepare you to be like these three ladies: http://geertzeyecare.com/index.html
Pulling down our profession one OD at a time.

 

[janedoe88]

the asian girl looks depressed lol

 

[Oligator]

They want to prepare you to be like these three ladies: http://geertzeyecare.com/index.html
Pulling down our profession one OD at a time.

So are you saying there is validity to ICO having there students work at a walmart?

 

[Shnurek]

So are you saying there is validity to ICO having there students work at a walmart?

I can't seem to dig up the dirt on their website which in a way might construe false advertising if some lawyers jumped on it. But there are definitely rumors going around:

Optometric Externships

A past employee of mine who is a 3rd year ICO student has told me that the school has made a change in their clinic rotations. Rotations will now be mandatory at the local Walmart and Lenscrafters in the Chicago vicinity. My understanding is that up to 25% of their clinic experience will come from a retail environment. I have some strong concerns here:

1) Are schools finally selling out to the highest bidder. Donations must be piling in from commercial retailers to get this "free" labor and the groundwork for a foundation of a career in commercial optometry.

2) Do any of you have any concerns or information regarding this? I for one am not comfortable with our new OD's obtaining their clinic experience in a retail setting.

Interested in everybodies opinion.​

 

[inflammablefish]

Has anybody actually thought of calling ICO and asking instead of perpetuating a rumor?

 

[contactspecs2020]

current ICO student here. we're not required to work at a walmart for externships - in fact we have no walmart or lenscrafter sites on our externship website. we get a choice of 1 VA, 1 primary care/contact lens site, and 1 ocular disease/bv/peds site. our last quarter is at the student clinic and we're required to fulfil speciality rotations there in there such as contact lens, peds, advanced care, urgent care, and low vision etc