2016_SUNY_Optometry_PRR

Clinical Medicine: A Proposal 04.30.15

Background Prior to the most recent major curricular revision, principles of clinical medicine were covered in a standalone course ( Clinical medicine and systemic disease I and II ) that was taught over two semesters. This course was team taught by in house faculty as well as guest lecturers from the local medical community. The topics covered in this course were then moved to different sections of the ocular disease course sequence and are currently taught only by in house faculty. The following recent developments have warranted a review and modifications to the clinical medicine curriculum.  Exit survey of graduating students indicates that the coverage of clinical medicine topics was insufficient in their opinion in the revised curriculum.  Communications to the college President, from several state boards of optometry have requested assurance that topics on clinical medicine receive adequate coverage of in the SUNY curriculum to enable our graduates to be eligible to obtain their state licenses.  The Association of Schools and Colleges of Optometry has stressed the importance of inter ‐ professional education in the optometry curriculum. Although not in direct response to any of the above mentioned reasons, more recently, certain aspects of clinical medicine, mainly pertaining to etiology, signs and symptoms of different systemic disease have been incorporated into the Human bioscience III, a course that was originally intended cover only general pathology. Also, the 1 st year integrative seminar course has incorporated a lecture on physical assessment. An understanding of topics in clinical medicine is necessary for optometrists to effectively manage conditions of the visual system impacted by systemic diseases. Knowledge of clinical medicine is also important to strengthen the role of the optometrist as a primary health care provider to enable them to promptly and effectively identify health problems and refer patients to other health care professionals as warranted by their condition. Disseminating the content of clinical medicine instruction into existing courses as was done during the last curriculum revision made sense from the perspective of integrating the clinical medicine topics with related subject matter in ocular disease. However, from the student feedback it seems that the current strategy to disseminate the clinical medicine topics fails to provide students the confidence needed to apply them for effective patient care. This proposal recommends that the following changes to the curriculum to this address this issue and other highlighted above.  Include aspects of clinical medicine, mainly pertaining to etiology, signs and symptoms of different systemic disorders into the Human bioscience course where the traditional approach has been to mainly discuss pathophysiological mechanism of the disease. The course instructors for Human Bioscience III have already initiated such modifications which can be fortified without any increase in the course hours. Analysis

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