A clinical teaching space has been opened at The University of Canberra School of Optometry and Vision Science.
The new clinical teaching space has 16 fully equipped clinical optometry suites laid out in three bays, enabling teachers and tutors to move freely between students to observe activities and provide guidance. The demonstration suite is equipped with a video camera to record images from the slit lamp bio-microscope and to record interactions between the patient and student, providing further opportunities to develop excellence in professional patient communication.
Thirty two students are able to use the pre-clinical space at one time, two in each suite with one acting as eye examiner and the other as patient. This abundant space will be increasingly in demand as student numbers increase over the coming years. According to the school’s Discipline Lead, Associate Professor Nicola Anstice, there is strong interest in the course, with 40 students expected to enrol in the Bachelor of Optometry degree in 2019.
The Faculty of Health is the University’s largest faculty and is committed to incorporating practical experience into day to day learning
Planned developments within the University’s Health Hub will see the Discipline of Optometry and Vision Sciences establish dispensing facilities and consultation rooms, enabling students to conduct comprehensive eye examinations, screen for eye disease, and dispense spectacles and contact lenses to members of the public. The facility’s purpose built consultation rooms will be complete with one fully wheelchair accessible room for both students and patients with disabilities. Consultation rooms will also be equipped for left and right handed students and linked by video to a tutorial room for further educational purposes.
Official Opening Celebrates Successes
Professor Deep Saini, Vice Chancellor of the University of Canberra, Professor Michelle Lincoln, Executive Dean of the Faculty of Health and Associate Professor Nicola Anstice officially opened the teaching clinic at a ceremony in October.
In his opening address, Prof. Saini said the School’s new clinical teaching space was “the latest milestone” in the University’s “rapidly expanding Faculty of Health”.
The Faculty of Health is the University’s largest faculty and is committed to incorporating practical experience into day to day learning by integrating teaching facilities with the Health Hub, a new on site hospital, and a cancer care and research centre currently under construction.
“This is a university where the lines between teaching, learning, researching and work, professions and practice are all blurred, where our students could one day be working as training optometrists here and the next day be attending a class,” said Professor Saini.
