sembaruthi said:
Hey all,
just a random question for anyone in an opt school or anyone that may know....are most of the prof. optometrists.....and if so do they have an addn'l Ph.D?? Thaanks
I would guess opt school is similar to most professional schools, like med school, in that you have five types of faculty:
FULL-TIME FACULTY, CLINICAL:
- These would be ODs who teach the clinical classes, who may have add'l
degrees, but could be just ODs. In med school, most just have an MD or
MD/MS or MD/MPH. I would guess you might have a few MD or DO OMDs
working as clinicals at an opt school.
FULL-TIME FACULTY, SCIENCES/ACADEMIC:
- These would be PhDs (or ScDs) who teach basic and advanced sciences
like pharmacology, anatomy, biochem, mol. bio, parasitology, etc. I would
guess if opt school is similar to med school, most of these profs would be
tenured PhDs, not OD-PhDs.
FULL-TIME FACULTY, RESEARCH:
- These could be OD-PHD, OD, MD, DVM, PharmD, PhD, ScD, or any other
academic background; they would teach specialized classes, OR just
conduct research. You might have a research prof there at your school
who teaches one or two classes per year but spends most of his/her time
conducting specialized funded research (e.g., macular degeneration, lasik,
glaucoma, diabetic retinopathy, etc.).
PART-TIME FACULTY, CLINICAL:
- Usually ODs and OMDs who work full-time in their own practice, but do PT
teaching, and usually, in a specialized or general area (e.g., assessment,
pharm, testing, refraction, etc.). In med school, most of the local
physicians held some form of "courtesy" or official faculty appointment and
did some part-time teaching or preceptor work, often at the residency
level, but sometimes in med school. You might have local ODs who teach
part-time and, if your school is like my med school, some of these profs
were way better than the tenured dinosaurs who haven't practiced in
years. It's nice to be trained by someone who is actually out there "in the
trenches" and practicing rather than some old fossil who has been in the
"Ivory Tower" for decades. I had one "clincal" full-time prof once ask a
student what an HMO was. This was an MD who had been teaching
since 1970!! Talk about out of touch!
PART-TIME FACULTY, ADJUNCT:
- These can be optometrists, physicians, lawyers, social workers,
psychologists, physicists, etc. They are usually clinical, but could be more
academic. In med school, we had a health care attorney teach a class on
medical jurisprudence and health care law. We had a veterinarian teach
a class on pathology. A psychologist taught a class on patient inter-
viewing and "bedside manner". In my residency, many non-physicians
served as preceptors and instructors. It was nice to have a more
holistic view point rather than just an MD (or in your case, an OD) view
point.
If you're interested in teaching, your OD should be more than adequate to teach a clinical skill, but if you wish to specialize, or teach a more scientific subject, usually your professional degree plus a graduate degree, like an MS/MA/MPH or PhD/JD/DPH is required.
