Ophthalmology Club

[mira]

I am hoping to start an ophthalmology club/interest group for the medical students at my medical school. Last year as I prepared to apply for ophtho residency, the medical students who had just matched into ophtho shared some of their experiences and passed along a few suggestions. However, there was not an established ophthalmology club to foster interest in the field, to give students exposure to residents and faculty, and to help prepare them for the application and interviewing process.

For those of you who have experience with ophthalmology clubs/interest groups, I wonder if you could pass along some ideas or suggestions to help with the startup of our club. What has worked well and been beneficial in your experience? What type of activities did you do? How early in your medical school career did you get involved? Relatively few students at my school apply for ophthalmology residency. It seems to me that exposure to the field earlier in their schooling would help some students decide to pursue ophtho as their career.

I look forward to any ideas or suggestions you might have.

Thanks,

Mira

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[Andrew_Doan]

Mira,

Welcome to the ophthalmology forum!

I don't have much advice regarding an ophthalmology club.

This forum is a good start to obtain ideas and share info. In some ways, it may be better than a formal club. 🙂

 

[Mirror Form]

You could start a Student Sight Savers Program (SSSP) branch at your school. I'm in my school's branch and it's a great club. Basically, the primary mission is to provide free screenings for glaucoma. It's fun for the first and second years b/c they get to learn how to take bp, use the tono-pen, etc.. It'll look good on your recommendations and it's a great way to get some research done b/c you can try to estimate the amount of glaucoma in your city's population. In order to do it right and also provide free follow-ups, you'd need to find an ophtho resident or attending willing to help. Otherwise, you could just refer high risk patients to get their eyes checked professionally, but then you lose out on the research and whatnot. It'll require some funding (or the ophtho dept's cooperation) to get started b/c you'll want a tono-pen, plus machines to measure the visual fields (you could also do this with a big piece of poster board though like the doctors in poor countries).

 

[Visionary]

Mira-

I'd shoot for something more along the lines of what Sledge suggested. I tried to start an ophtho club at my school, and it eventually failed, for a couple of reasons. First, ophtho is one of the more competitive specialties, so you don't really need/want to foster interest in it among your classmates (an upper classman asked me on hearing of the club: why do you want more competition?). Second, I found a lot of people interested during first year who dropped out after the first few exams, figuring they would no longer be competitive enough. In other words, you may find membership difficult to maintain, and as a result, the club as a whole (especially if money is involved). The latter may be less of an issue, if your school traditionally matches a lot of students in ophtho. If you do decide to pursue this, I wish you the best of luck; however, don't be surprised if it doesn't last. 😉

 

[mira]

I appreciate the ideas. When I first suggested an ophthalmology club during my third year, my advisor was a little bit surprised. He brought up the competition issue and suggested that there were already enough students applying to ophtho--no need to encourage anymore. Once applications and interviews hit, I had to put the idea on the backburner.

Maybe a club isn't the best idea after all. However, I still think that it would be nice to offer some help and experience to those who are considering ophtho. The student affairs office at my school doesn't offer much help to students matching outside of the NRMP. You basically have to figure everything out for yourself.

Instead of starting a club, it might be helpful to have a session after match where all interested students are invited to hear from the students who have recently matched into ophtho and ask questions--maybe even have a resident and an attending present.

Mira

 

[Premed2003]

Here at Baylor, one of my friends started a chapter of something called Unite For Sight. I think he said it's a nonprofit that's all over the country. They do screenings for kids and adults and other ophtho-related stuff.

 

[Premed2003]

I found their website: http://www.uniteforsight.org

 

[Light]

Mira--

Hello. Myself along w/a few others who had recently matched into ophtho, and an ophtho faculty on the selection committee, actually did what i think you are getting at. We held an informal dinner meeting for med students at a couple of schools to discuss the ophtho application process -- everything from research to applying to getting letters of rec to the interview trail to the rank process.

About 10 students attended each of the meetings and found it very helpful. It was a Q&A session mostly (well, w/good food!), and lasted about 2-2.5hrs. Students said it was very helpful and we gave out contact info if they were to have questions in the future.

If you'd like more info on what we did and how we organized it, drop me a line. Have a great wknd!

lates.

 

[mira]

Thanks for your suggestions. I think I will do something similar to what Light has done. A simple meeting with food involved where future applicants can ask questions in an informal setting sounds helpful.

I think I will pass along the more time intensive ideas to the future applicants who might want to start an ophtho club. They will be around in the future to help make it work and they will be able to put it on their application.

Thanks and let me know if you have any other suggestions,

Mira!