Petition to End New York Law

[Commando303]

---

Members do not see this ad.

An on-line petition is circulating to oppose the NY education law that prevents students from completing externships or clerkships in the state if they are not enrolled in S.U.N.Y. Optometry. I thought I'd post a link, here, in case anyone wishes to sign (*it's being requested signatories not sign anonymously; i.e., that they leave the "allow my signature to be seen publicly" box checked off):

http://www.change.org/petitions/let-us-learn-in-opposition-to-new-yorks-pernicious-education-law

Thanks.

 

[KHE]

An on-line petition is circulating to oppose the NY education law that prevents students from completing externships or clerkships in the state if they are not enrolled in S.U.N.Y. Optometry. I thought I'd post a link, here, in case anyone wishes to sign (*it's being requested signatories not sign anonymously; i.e., that they leave the "allow my signature to be seen publicly" box checked off):

http://www.change.org/petitions/let-us-learn-in-opposition-to-new-yorks-pernicious-education-law

Thanks.

I would be willing to sign that petition but I want to ask what the concern is because I don't quite get it from what the petition says.

You can train outside of New York and still get a New York license and practice in New York. So why are "countless invaluable practitioners" remaining outside the state to practice?

The issue then is what? People just want to do 4th year rotations in New York if they go to school at PCO or NEWENCO?

 

[Commando303]

I would be willing to sign that petition but I want to ask what the concern is because I don't quite get it from what the petition says.

You can train outside of New York and still get a New York license and practice in New York. So why are "countless invaluable practitioners" remaining outside the state to practice?

The issue then is what? People just want to do 4th year rotations in New York if they go to school at PCO or NEWENCO?

It's an education law: students enrolled anywhere but in S.U.N.Y. Optometry are prohibited from completing externships in New York. Such legislation is unique to NY; for instance, an O.D. student enrolled in S.U.N.Y. could apply for a California externship, where there are a number of local colleges of optometry.

The mention of New York's losing potential practitioners would infer that, by closing itself to O.D. students, including those who are originally from NY but enrolled elsewhere, the state narrows itself to a limited pool of optometrists (I do realize the Oversupply Police might wish to chant in favor of this, but I don't believe it's why the law was enacted, and I feel it would be an obtuse, terrible way to address supply–demand concerns).

 

[Shnurek]

I don't really see the controversy here but I'd care more about the orals bill being fought for right now in NYS: http://www.nysoa.org/index.php?page_id=6&news_id=203

 

[Commando303]

I don't really see the controversy here but I'd care more about the orals bill being fought for right now in NYS: http://www.nysoa.org/index.php?page_id=6&news_id=203

I see a problem, not a controversy (of course, you're free to disagree). As for orals, yes, that's an important battle for O.D.s in New York, but it shouldn't place this issue in oblivion.

 

[mclem222]

The reason this law was set up, was for caribean medical schools. They do the first two years of medical school in the caribean and then students do their clinicals in the US. The schools pay the hospitals an exorbitant amount of money to allow their medical students to rotate and the NY schools (Mt sinai, columbia, cornell etc..) were getting boxed out. As a result the law was created. There is talk of caribbean optometry schools being created and using that model as med schools so the law was made. May be hard to change...

 

[Commando303]

The reason this law was set up, was for caribean medical schools. They do the first two years of medical school in the caribean and then students do their clinicals in the US. The schools pay the hospitals an exorbitant amount of money to allow their medical students to rotate and the NY schools (Mt sinai, columbia, cornell etc..) were getting boxed out. As a result the law was created. There is talk of caribbean optometry schools being created and using that model as med schools so the law was made. May be hard to change...

First, thank you for posting — this is the first I've heard of what may have formed the basis for the establishment of this legislation. Second, I must ask, can you cite a source for this information?

Thanks, again.

 

[mclem222]

One of my parent's friends is a dean at the medical school at Columbia and he told us.

 

[Iforaneye]

I did my externship in NY and did not go to SUNY. There are loop holes to get around that law. But I agree it is a out dated law that should be changed.

 

[Commando303]

I did my externship in NY and did not go to SUNY. There are loop holes to get around that law. But I agree it is a out dated law that should be changed.

When did you perform your externship, and where (I know one V.A. hospital gets around the law)?

 

[blysssful]

I don't really see the big deal with this law. If you know that you would like to be educated in NY, then why would you choose to go to school elsewhere? If you applied to SUNY and didn't get in, then you can still return to practice in NY after being educated elsewhere. Also, NY residencies are still available to students from any of the schools.

"This policy has done baseless disservice not only to students, but to the state of New York, which reasonably has lost countless competent and invaluable practitioners as they were forced to gain their clinical experience elsewhere but in New York, then often remained outside the state to practice."
This statement is a bit over the top. If someone wants to ultimately practice in NY, there is nothing in the NYS License Requirements that says you must be educated in NYS in order to practice in the state. If you go to school elsewhere and CHOOSE to practice elsewhere, then that is your choice.

See the following for verification:
http://www.op.nysed.gov/prof/optom/article143.htm
http://www.op.nysed.gov/prof/optom/sect52-17.htm
http://www.op.nysed.gov/prof/optom/part66.htm

 

[PBEA]

that petition smells bad. Smells like optician/corporate optical involvement. One thing NY does not need is more ODs.

 

[Commando303]

that petition smells bad. Smells like optician/corporate optical involvement. One thing NY does not need is more ODs.

Why would Big Corporate bother starting an on-line petition, aiming for a hundred or so signatures, to try to permit New–York externships for non–S.U.N.Y.-Optometry students?

 

[PBEA]

Why would Big Corporate bother starting an on-line petition, aiming for a hundred or so signatures, to try to permit New–York externships for non–S.U.N.Y.-Optometry students?

Maybe I'm misreading it but, who would bother starting such a petition at all? Disenfranchised OD students from schools other then SUNY, who can't get a NY rotation? Naaah, really?

 

[Commando303]

Maybe I'm misreading it but, who would bother starting such a petition at all? Disenfranchised OD students from schools other then SUNY, who can't get a NY rotation? Naaah, really?

.

 

[WildWing]

SDN received a request today from a producer at WRHU (wrhu.org) who is interested in interviewing someone from SDN on the New York State law that bans any student enrolled in a college of optometric medicine other than S.U.N.Y. Optometry from gaining any level of clinical training (i.e., via clerkship, externship) within the state.

If you are interested in potentially being interviewed next week, please send me a private message and I will forward the producer's information to you.

 

[mclem222]

I wonder if a caribbean optometry school was opened would the board be ok with students from their training in NY? That is what I think this opens the door for. NY was one of the first places to allow caribbean trained MDs to do rotations in the US. This may open the door for optometry students from greneda to do the same

 

[caitsiex]

I wonder if a caribbean optometry school was opened would the board be ok with students from their training in NY? That is what I think this opens the door for. NY was one of the first places to allow caribbean trained MDs to do rotations in the US. This may open the door for optometry students from greneda to do the same

Do optometry students from other countries currently do externships in other US states? If that's an issue, couldn't NY just limit its externship sites to US optometry students instead of just SUNY students?

 

[mclem222]

I don't know the answer to that. Obviously it is way different if an optometry student from the UK or India with plans to practice in their home country do some rotation here. I think what people are worried about is opening the door for American students who train elsewhere to try to do rotations here and then practice here. It would essentially increase the floodgate of practicing ODs (not that it would be bad necessarily, but I think a large number of board people here are not in favor of that...though I disagree to a certain extent)