Optometrists Association’s West Australian division has recently partnered with Perth Tafe to initiate a program that will provide optical dispensing students with the opportunity to make up new frames then grind and fit them with lenses donated by CR Surfacing. OAA WA CEO Tony Martella said the ready readers will be dispensed to appropriate patients during OAA WA’s community eye health programs.
In America, a community based eye health initiative that began in 2007 is providing optometry students with valuable clinical experience.
CooperVision collaborated with the American Optometric Student Association to introduce third and fourth year students to the Adopt a Patient program.Devin Sasser from the St. Louis College of Optometry at University of Missouri said the collaboration with CooperVision on the Adopt-a-Patient program provides “invaluable and instrumental” possibilities in growing future optometrists.
Mark Andre F.A.A.O, director of academic affairs at CooperVision said the program “will give the practitioners of tomorrow new, real-world clinical opportunities, working with patients who otherwise couldn’t afford vision correction and care.”
The Adopt-a-Patient program, which started in 2007, allows primarily third- and fourth-year optometry students to gain clinical experience by examining and fitting eligible patients in CooperVision’s contact lenses, and providing them with follow up care. Patients receive a complimentary year’s supply of their prescribed lenses from CooperVision. The cost of the examination is subsidised by Vision Service Plan (VSP).
