MSCHE/ACOE Self Study

and student resources. Criteria for the selection of sites and the application that sites must complete can be found in Appendix B-10. Individuals who supervise students at the site must complete an Initial Application for Adjunct Faculty Appointment (page 8 of Appendix B-10) and be granted adjunct faculty status by the vice president for academic affairs per established policy. As mentioned previously, one of the fourth-year external rotations must emphasize primary eye care, while the other may focus more on specialty care (Strategic Plan Goals 1.1 and 3.3). Students may elect to rotate through a UEC specialty clinic as one of their external rotations. In line with its mission to develop outstanding optometrists and provide services to a broad range of communities, the College has recently expanded its externship sites to international locations (strategic plan goal 4.1; objective – “Within five years, at least 30% of fourth-year students will experience foreign clinical rotations each year. ” ). Students may now rotate through the School of Optometry and Ophthalmology of Wenzhou Medical College in the People’s Republic of China, with 4 students to participate in 2010-2011. Rotation through these sites exposes students to alternative approaches to the delivery of eye care and global issues related to public health. Additional international affiliations are under consideration in China as well as with institutions in Australia, Nigeria, United Kingdom and India. A list of current primary and elective sites can be found on page 15 of Appendix B-10. 2.10.2 The program uses a monitoring system to assure that clinical affiliates or externship sites are providing clinical experiences that meet the program’s mission, goals, and objectives. Externship sites are monitored using a number of mechanisms. As described previously, there is an initial review process. Students are required to log each patient encounter, including demographic, diagnostic and treatment information, using the Meditrek web-based system, a commercially available product designed to track and analyze patient encounters (page 16 of Appendix B-10). It provides summary data for each site that are regularly reviewed by the director of externship programs. At the conclusion of a rotation, students complete (using Meditrek) a detailed evaluation of the site and the adjunct faculty at the site (page 19 of Appendix B-10) that is reviewed by the director of externship programs and made available to third-year students to assist in site selection. As an additional level of oversight, site visits are conducted by the director of externships. Decisions to modify, retain or discontinue externship sites are made on an ongoing basis by the director of externship programs in consultation with the dean taking into account student clinical experiences and feedback. The director compares student experiences both within and across sites for consistency and quality. Very rarely is a site discontinued for lack of student interest, pointing to the effectiveness of the site selection and review process. It is extremely uncommon

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