Optometric Residency and Externship Program: Program Mission and Core Competencies

Goal 1: Help the resident develop advanced diagnostic and management clinical skills in ocular disease.

• Objective 1: Expose the resident to a wide variety of challenging ocular disease that includes medical and surgical management.
• Outcome: The resident will examine and co-manage patients presenting to the practice for medical and surgical eye care, rotating through various ophthalmological subspecialties.
• Measure: The resident will maintain a patient care log with diagnostic categories for quarterly review. The residency program supervisor will review the patient care experiences and determine if they are meeting the expected goal.
• Objective 2: Ensure that the resident evaluates a minimum number of patients.
• Outcome: The resident will gain experience by examining at least 2,000 patients.
• Measure: Utilizing the patient care log, the resident will document total patient encounters. The patient care log will be reviewed quarterly.
• Objective 3:  Provide the resident the opportunity to become proficient in advanced diagnostic and treatment procedures.
• Outcome:The resident will meet performance criteria for various eye care diagnostic and treatment procedures as outlined in the resident supervision policy.
• Measure: The resident supervision log will be reviewed quarterly and the supervisor will ensure that the resident is experienced and proficient in the specified procedures within the first nine months of the residency.
• Objective 4: The resident will gain experience and proficiency in managing pre- and post-operative ophthalmic surgery patients.
• Outcome: The resident will provide a minimum number of perioperative evaluations (500 refractive cataract surgery and 100 other ocular surgical patient encounters)
• Measure: The resident will record these visits in the patient care log which will be reviewed quarterly.

Goal 2: Provide the resident with a practical understanding of a referral based ophthalmic practice.

• Objective 1: Ensure that the resident learns proper interaction with referring providers.
• Outcome: The resident will be responsible to review information provided by the referral source and for correspondence back to the referring doctor following evaluation.
• Measure: Using the resident’s activity log, the resident will document the amount of doctor correspondence.
• Objective 2: Help the resident to learn appropriate use of other clinical support services.
• Outcome: The resident will refer patients and consult with other providers such as: radiology, vascular, clinical laboratory, etc.
• Measure: Residents will report quarterly on the patient care log any referrals and consultations requested.

Goal 3: Expand the resident’s health care knowledge base.

• Objective 1: Encourage the resident to review the current literature and utilize evidence based medicine.
• Outcome: The resident will participate in the Optometry Journal Club along with our optometric externs.
• Measure: Documentation will be provided in the resident’s activity log.
• Objective 2: Encourage the resident to strive toward academic and clinical excellence.
• Outcome: Faculty will present lectures on various topics of eye care to students and the eye care community in addition to participation in monthly grand rounds lectures with ophthalmology residents at Eastern Virginia Medical School.
• Measure: The resident will document these lectures in the resident activity log.

Goal 4: Instill in the resident an appreciation for the importance of research and other scholarly activity.

• Objective: Educate the resident as to the process of optometric research and manuscript preparation.
• Outcome: The resident will prepare a manuscript of publishable quality.

Measure: The supervisor will monitor the progress of manuscript preparation as outlined.

Goal 5: Assist the resident in becoming an effective educator.

• Objective 1: Educate the resident on how to prepare and present a clinical lecture.
• Outcome: The resident will prepare and present at least one clinical in-service or continuing education lecture monthly.
• Measure: The resident will document this presentation in the resident activity log.
• Objective 2: The resident will learn how to effectively educate fourth-year optometry students.
• Outcome: The resident will serve as teaching assistant for the fourth-year optometry students.
• Measure: Utilizing the resident activity log, the resident will report teaching activities quarterly.

Goal 6: Help the resident to gain an appreciation for service to patients and to the optometric profession.

• Objective 1: The resident will gain experience and an appreciation for service to the profession of optometry.
• Outcome: The resident will participate in local optometric society and state association activities working with the Virginia Optometric Association executive director with various responsibilities.
• Measure: The resident will document service and activity with organized optometry in the resident activity log.
• Objective 2: Help the resident develop a commitment to providing charitable work within the community.
• Outcome: The resident will on occasion participate in health screenings and/or examine patients who are referred for charity care from the community or the Virginia Eye Foundation.
• Measure: Charitable work will be documented in the resident activity log.

Goal 7: Prepare the resident with a strong understanding of clinical integration and communication between health care providers, including: referral letters, progress notes, and proper billing and coding.

• Objective 1: The resident will learn proper CPT and ICD coding and billing procedures.
• Outcome: The resident will be responsible for filling out the routing sheet properly on all patients.
• Measure: The attending reviews the coding prior to discharging the patient and the practice’s certified billing/coding compliance coordinator regularly reviews charts for proper coding.
• Objective 2: The resident will gain vast experience working in an optometry/ophthalmology co-management setting.
• Outcome: Residents completing the program will be qualified to obtain employment in a multidisciplinary setting.
• Measure: The residency director will monitor resident program evaluations, completion rates, and career placement.