Experience vs. Classroom Learning

[stephanie]

Hi SCO! Welcome to the optiboard. My friend graduated from SCO also. If you need any help I can ask her to help you out. She is a great optometrist and speaks highly of the school. Are you staying in Memphis when you are through? I am moving to the Memphis area as soon as my house sells. If you hear of any jobs let me know please!!! As far as my education is concerned I learned everything I know from here on the optiboard!! Actually the people here helped me a lot. I learned mostly from OJT. It makes test taking a little harder but it helps to already know how to apply what you have already learned. I do think if given the choice I would have definately gone to school. I have said a million times on here that questions people you work with may not know how to answer or can be bothered to answer for that point can be answered much better in a class room setting. I did pass the ABO and NCLE on the first try but I studied like crazy. Now I am studying to take the Certified ophthalmic assistant test. Here I go again Jo!!! LOL!!! My point is this teachers are being paid to teach you and answer questions and help you in areas you may be weak in. Your "mentor" may not really care or be willing to help you as much as you like. I so well know. It is wonderful to learn on the job just make sure whomever is teaching you is willing to take the time to help in any way possible.

Steph

[Joann Raytar]

Now I am studying to take the Certified ophthalmic assistant test.

Steph,

Has there ever been a time since you have been on OptiBoard when you weren't studying to sit for an exam???

I can't wait to read the questions you may post when you get to studying. We always learn something new from your study sessions. :)

[stephanie]

Jo, yea I don't think I have ever been on here when I wasn't studying. What in the world could you have learned from my posts???? LOL!! Actually I have taken about 8 months off from studying. It is getting close though to my years time with the MD and I want my COA!! He keeps asking for my paper test to send in, but I just can't get up the energy to fill the thing out. It is amazingly easy. All the answers are in the book and go in order from chapter to chapter. I am sure the actual test won't be that easy. Unlike the ABO or NCLE the Coa test seems to concentrate on things we actually do and hear everyday which will make it a little easier. The hard part of this job is dealing with people we can't make any better. I find myself saying often "what happened to the good ole days when the worst thing that happened in a day was possibly conjunctivitis??? or a kid that got upset because he needed gls???" I think tomorrow I will just get on that test and just fill in the little circles! Afterall it is taking an open book test. Oh well...back to the books! What can I take next? I hope eventually this will all benefit me in some way!!!

Steph

[Joann Raytar]

The hard part of this job is dealing with people we can't make any better. I find myself saying often "what happened to the good ole days when the worst thing that happened in a day was possibly conjunctivitis???

Steph,

Whenever you find yourself in this mood just remember the good ole days when you had less folks you could help see better. When I first started we still saw alot of folks who would come in post cataract without IOL's. You knew that the only result would be a very thick pair of glasses no matter what lens you used and if they didn't have their glasses on they couldn't see their own hand in front of their faces.

You wait and see. The next thing to come out will be a better way to deal with macular degeneration.

We've come along way and we still have a bit more to go. :)

[stephanie]

Jo, I pray all the time they hurry and find something for SMD so I can at least hear the docs finally say "yes Mrs. Jones this is what we can do to help that we have a new tx..." That and RP really bothers the hell out of me. Of course I LOVE post op cat sx pts...they are almost always very happy people. Aphakics are horrible I have seen a few of them (not too many anymore) but it is very sad to see and know there isn't much you can do to make their lives better. Sure you could fit them with CLs but many 70 or 80 year olds don't have the manual dexterity needed and many have no desire to wear them. Some days I would just really love to go back to just trying to find the right screw to fix that frame!! LOL!! Life was much easier then!

Steph

[MVEYES]

Experience

Don't you all think we have to have a foundation in education before we go out and let experience fine tune our skills?


Jerry

[Joann Raytar]

Jerry,

Yes, we do have to have a foundation in education. I understand what you mean by "before" we go out and fine tune our skills. This works for many other tradesmen and craftsmen but with our current mindset would it work for us?

[chip anderson]

Jo:

There was a better way to deal with the aphakes without IOL's than thick glasses, there still is: Hard Well Fitted PMMA contact lenses. (If you want to know why this is better than soft or HGP, let me know.) I fit thousands of them and still have some for patients.

There are better ways to deal with macular degeneration coming out. In fact if you believe Paul Harvey (I don't) simple vitamins from High Health will reverse it.

Chip

[MVEYES]

Jo

The barriers to improving our profession not only are in our hands but in the mindset of the other O's. Recently our association testified in front of our state legislators on the need for formal 2 year education. The president of the optometric board said that it was not necessary that she learned dispensing in one year. As I said, it's not only our own profession who puts a roadblock in front of education.

Jerry

[Joann Raytar]

Re: Jo

Originally posted by MVEYES
The president of the optometric board said that it was not necessary that she learned dispensing in one year.

That's interesting. My boss, an OD, rented space next to local independent opticians since he got out of school and has been partners with an optician and has recently become the sole owner of his own office with a dispensary for the last ten years. He openly admits he is still learning about opticianry from us all of the time. According to him. we have more knowledge of lens/frame materials, neutralizing certain Rx's and trouble shooting.

My question to the president of your state optometric board would be what exactly did you learn in one year? If an optician were to take one year of Optimetric courses, does that mean they would be educated enough to refract? Also, if that OD had some type of special vision care need would she rather go to another OD for her fitting or a qualified LO? We have OD's and MD's who own their own dispensaries and their families come to us for their glasses. I would think this means that, when it comes down to it, there is something to say for the field or Opticianry.

[MVEYES]

Jo

You are so right. Sometimes I think political Optometry is out of touch with the mainstream optometric practice. The problem is that mainstream needs to demand from the political powers what they feel.


Jerry

[wmcdonald]

As an educator, I am pleased to see this thread. I think that there is a great deal of this going for Opticianry, but we MUST develop a similar background and training for all Opticians, not just some parts for a particular state or jurisdiction if we are to advance. ODs have a great system of education and training, but it is done in a formal academic setting, not OJT with little evaluation of the teaching/learning transaction. To be a competent Optician requires a great deal of knowledge- optics, anatomy and physiology, contact lenses, dispensing and all the rest. What we need (my opinion) is some formal training program in which Opticians are taught all the facets of the profession, and it should include both academic preparation and hands-on learning. They must be an integral part of the Opticians training to ever fully grasp the knowledge base required. What is scarry is that most in the field don't have adequate training to train someone else, so those they train will only be as good as they were (or maybe not quite as good). That has, unfortunately watered down the entire field. We must change to include a formal education! Only then will we advance professionally to where we should be. It is education that will be the vehicle that drives us forward and without it, it will be the chains and others who don't favor licensing, much less education, will be the ones in control of our destiny. We need to be better prepared to gain control of where we are and where we want to be. I'm sure that someone who trained as an apprentice will take strong offense. I'm sure they are the best Optician ever and their trainer was outstanding, but that is not the issue. For the betterment of us all, we must move forward and education is the key.

[Pete Hanlin]

I'm sure that someone who trained as an apprentice will take strong offense. I'm sure they are the best Optician ever and their trainer was outstanding, but that is not the issue. For the betterment of us all, we must move forward and
education is the key.

Well, there you have put it in a nutshell! Are some of the best Opticians currently in the field self-taught or apprenticed? I think the answer is definitely "yes." Is education alone the answer to Optical training and knowledge? I believe we can all agree that experience is crucial in a field that is by nature hands on, so the answer is "no." However, can the profession advance itself without adhering to a consistent formal educational standard? The answer is "absolutely not."

I am an "apprenticed" Optician (in the general sense, I didn't go through an official apprentice program). However, I freely admit becoming a superb Optician without formal education is the exception and not the rule. Apprenticeship and/or self teaching cannot guarantee even a basic knowledge of all aspects of this field. I don't think apprenticed Opticians who consider themselves "superior" need to feel offense- they just need to realize that they are, indeed, "exceptional" to the rule!

As long as educators and the people representing education promote formal education in that light (not that it is impossible to acheive competency and even excellence without education, but rather that education is our best chance to acheive consistent excellence and professional recognition), I believe the two "sides" will begin to come together. I, for one, hope that formal education becomes the standard for our profession- I just see a long, hard road to making it so...

[MVEYES]

Pete

I also taught myself through textbooks and very little training at Ohio State University in the ophthalmology department. I am proud that I could self teach myself and have the motivation to become the best Optician by getting an ABOM certification. When I graduated from Wright State University in 1974 there were no Opticianry schools within a 100 miles. I went to Ohio State's Optometry school and asked if I could take classes in physiological optics but was refused unless I entered the optometry program. I had no desire to refract so I taught myself the principles of optics from the books that my brother had in his ophthalmology residency. Experience along with a good educational background is the road to success in our profession as well as Optometry and Ophthalmology.


Jerry

[chip anderson]

You evaluate the relevance. General Motors always made money when the CEO started at a young age on the production lines. It started losing when the company started hiring outside highly educated CEO's.

Chip