Residency

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rallthenamesgon

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I just got done having a talk with my optometrist today and he was telling me about doind a residency after optometry school. He said that he didn't do it because the salary was too low, but it is good for education. Can I get the opinion of any ODs/OD graduates/optometry students that have experience with doing a residency? Why did you do it? What did you learn? Would you recommend to any optometry or future optometry students?

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I just got done having a talk with my optometrist today and he was telling me about doind a residency after optometry school. He said that he didn't do it because the salary was too low, but it is good for education. Can I get the opinion of any ODs/OD graduates/optometry students that have experience with doing a residency? Why did you do it? What did you learn? Would you recommend to any optometry or future optometry students?


I never did one, but I can't say that I'm sorry for that. Some think that a residency might be for students that do not feel comfortable in their clinical or decision making skills (only applies to some). Some want a residency to enhance skills in a certain area, or to see patients mostly on their own but still have another doctor to talk with about a case. Some want the ability to teach academia, or work in a Veteran's hospital.

All residencies are not created equal, and I WOULD definitely stay away from school residencies. Every one i've witnessed are not very advantageous for a new clinician (just my opinion). A few Ophthalmologists like seeing an OD complete one if you're considering working for OMD (although not a requirement).

Personally, I just wanted to get out and start working. I had no desire to ever do Vision therapy, and contact lenses are not that hard to fit when you get out unless you're doing speciality RGP fits all the time. I completed four rotations of Ocular Disease because it interested me the most. I think a disease residency would be the most beneficial (again just my opinion).

Hope you find the answer to your question. Make sure you mesh with the attending doctor at the residency, you're with them for a full year. My friend from OD school hates his attending, and can't wait til June when his residency ends.
 
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I personally think a residency should be mandatory. With that said, I think its an excellent option.
 
Hi-

I did a VA Residency and think it is well worth the time and effort. It has the potential to open doors for later in your career (or keep them from closing depending on your point of view). I did mine mostly becuase it makes you a better doctor. It's intense, difficult, you have to deal with a lot of stuff and it makes it so tough decisions don't phase you. I was in the top 15 of my class, did a 6 month externship at Bascom Palmer and earned honors the entire 4th year, so for me, it had nothing to do with lack of confidence or training. The fact is you pretty much have to do one to teach. You may not want to do that now, but who know what you'll want to do in 20 years? It also was one of the main reason why I got my first job after finishing the residency. It happened to be an MD group that only considered residency trained ODs.

I say go for it!!!!!
 
I also believe residencies are a great idea. I completed mine at Bascom Palmer and saw things that most of my instructors at Berkeley had never even heard of. I think being exposed to ophthalmology training by working with OMD residents is a huge benefit to optometric training. I think that in order to be a good primary care clinician you need to be exposed to the diseases you wont see everyday so that you are better prepared for them when they happen to walk into your office. You may not get that exposure depending on where your rotations are, plus 6-8 weeks, or even 3 months is not the same as 1 year. Also, I think being residency trained makes me more credible when I lecture.
 
I never did one, but I can't say that I'm sorry for that. Some think that a residency might be for students that do not feel comfortable in their clinical or decision making skills (only applies to some). Some want a residency to enhance skills in a certain area, or to see patients mostly on their own but still have another doctor to talk with about a case. Some want the ability to teach academia, or work in a Veteran's hospital.

All residencies are not created equal, and I WOULD definitely stay away from school residencies. Every one i've witnessed are not very advantageous for a new clinician (just my opinion). A few Ophthalmologists like seeing an OD complete one if you're considering working for OMD (although not a requirement).

Personally, I just wanted to get out and start working. I had no desire to ever do Vision therapy, and contact lenses are not that hard to fit when you get out unless you're doing speciality RGP fits all the time. I completed four rotations of Ocular Disease because it interested me the most. I think a disease residency would be the most beneficial (again just my opinion).

Hope you find the answer to your question. Make sure you mesh with the attending doctor at the residency, you're with them for a full year. My friend from OD school hates his attending, and can't wait til June when his residency ends.

I disagree with a lot of this and I'm not sure why someone who admits that he did NOT do a residency is giving out so much advice on which ones you should or should not do or whether they are advantageous or not. (Yea, yea, I know...."I have friends who....blah blah blah)

In my residency class, every resident was at or near the top of their class. I can assure you that NO one was uncomfortable with their clinical or decision making skills. I also disagree with the notion that you should not do one at a school. Many of the school residencies are as challenging and rewarding as any VA hospital or "super tech for an OMD" residency out there. I would however suggest that if someone does a residency at a school of optometry that they NOT do one at the school that they attended. I did this, and it was a great experience but I think that it would have been better had I moved on and interacted with other faculty at other facilities.

I recommend residency highly. There have been many threads on this forum stating the pros and cons. I think that the pros FAR outweigh the cons.
 
I disagree with a lot of this and I'm not sure why someone who admits that he did NOT do a residency is giving out so much advice on which ones you should or should not do or whether they are advantageous or not. (Yea, yea, I know...."I have friends who....blah blah blah)

In my residency class, every resident was at or near the top of their class. I can assure you that NO one was uncomfortable with their clinical or decision making skills. I also disagree with the notion that you should not do one at a school. Many of the school residencies are as challenging and rewarding as any VA hospital or "super tech for an OMD" residency out there. I would however suggest that if someone does a residency at a school of optometry that they NOT do one at the school that they attended. I did this, and it was a great experience but I think that it would have been better had I moved on and interacted with other faculty at other facilities.

I recommend residency highly. There have been many threads on this forum stating the pros and cons. I think that the pros FAR outweigh the cons.

I'm just commenting on my observations of residencies at schools I've seen (two). I still strongly disagree though that a school residency would be as challenging (this is just my observation of residents). The VA residents were far vastly more intelligent and excited in the residency, and this was year after year I talked to them. Our school clinic was always scarce for patients, and if I would have done one I wouldn't want to hope to see a few patients.
For your discussion your school was obviously vastly different, and the residents you were around were different than my experience.

Several times I thought of doing a residency, but I couldn't see how it was going to benefit me. Just because I didn't do a residency, doesn't mean that others would like to hear positive and negative aspects of it. I wasn't going to work for an OMD, a VA hospital, or teach at an OD school. In the state that I practice you can't promote or advertise yourself as an "expert in CL fitting or Vision therapy,etc.." simply because you did a residency.

I'm not saying people shouldn't do residencies, but they should do them because its the right fit and reason for them. Some students choose a residency because they DO want more clinical skills practice or difficult decision making skills. Location, type of residency, hours of extra work, meshing with the attending doctor are all factors that I have heard other residents wished they would have thought of first.

Why did you KHE choose to do one, just curious?

My 2 cents
 
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