ACOE_Self-Study

taught in the second year of the curriculum and consists of 18 hours of lecture and 10 hours of lab. (Other material related to clinical medicine continues to be covered in related courses.) The topics covered are taught by several instructors including ODs, MDs, DOs, and NPs and involve discussion of interprofessional interactions and collaborative practice. Only 29% of the Class of 2018 – the first class to take the new general medicine course -- did not believe enough time was devoted to the subject, an improvement over the percentage that expressed the same view in the 2017 exit survey. Although SUNY performance on systemic health items of NBEO Part I have historically been strong, these scores and exit surveys will continue to be monitored to assess the effectiveness of this intervention. Revision of Clinical Optometry Sequence The revision of the Clinical Optometry sequence was put into place at the start of the Fall semester for the Class of 2020 ( Appendix II-11b ). The changes in the sequence were in response to and in anticipation of changes in clinical optometric practice and in the health care delivery system. The revision process included assessment of the sequence using the ASCO Attributes of Students Graduating from Schools and Colleges of Optometry Report to articulate the skill set needed by graduating optometry students, results from discussions at Dean’s Council, faculty meetings and conferences on optometric education, and assessment of changes in optometric care and in the health care system. The revision will be assessed via comparison of student performance on NBEO prior to and after the revision, by faculty feedback regarding student preparation for entrance to clinic, and by feedback from faculty at internal rotations and externship sites regarding student performance. Electives in the Professional Degree Program Consistent with the 2013-18 Strategic Plan and in response to student requests and the desire to provide more opportunity for students to customize their professional degree education by adding material they find particularly interesting and valuable to them, after several years of planning we implemented an elective program in AY 2013-14. The electives provide opportunity for deeper treatments of special topics in small group environments and may contain both didactic and clinical training opportunities. The College continues to assess student interest periodically and expands its elective course offerings accordingly. A catalog of elective courses is in Appendix II-5 . Expansion of the Fourth-Year Externship Program Since at least 1995, fourth-year optometry students had typically participated in up to two off- campus clinical rotations as part of the externship program. As part of the planning process for increased student enrollment that commenced in 2012, the College analyzed patient flow at its on-campus clinic, the University Eye Center (UEC), and determined that the increased enrollment could potentially reduce the number of patients seen by students rotating through the UEC. Student exit surveys indicated strong student satisfaction with the externship program, and the number of patients seen by students at these sites was high as tracked by the Meditrek system used for this purpose. These results helped inform the College’s decision to increase the number of external rotations from two to three during the 2014 – 2015 academic year. Exit surveys

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