Jeff Trail said:
Tim,
As someone who went through Laurie's program (Hi Laurie happy holidays) I can tell you we covered a lot, as someone who deals with a WIDE range of people (I'm wholesale) I see a lot of problems in this thread as well. I think refracting is not as simple as people may think, take the other thread asking about ".25 cylinder should it be there" (something like that) I noticed no OD's on here jumped on to that thread, I was hoping more would explain it further and maybe better than I did.. I think if anyone thinks refracting is just turning a few knobs and saying "one or two" or "better or worse" than they are NOT ready to refract.
I have been lucky I guess since I got to train under an MD (plus phoropter) and work with an OD (minus) as well as a ton of trial framing in low vision work, but it is a lot more complicated than most people think, Oh if you just want to dial it in and flip the JCC around and do a couple of flips and fog etc., etc.. and it is a "simple" refraction sure, but I still think you need to be "over trained" to have a deeper understanding than just the "basics" so when something does pop up you can be able to identify it and move them on to more appropriate care and follow up..
One of the BIGGEST misnomers I see is sending a person to an MD for a refraction, I know probably 30 or so MD's and not ONE of them refracts but has a tech do it... the redo rate is also out of this world compared to OD's I have as accounts...
I still think all optics is like a house of cards and you can't build it up until you have that firm base to build upon.. without the basic theories and anatomy than you are going to miss a lot..
If an optician gets very good at fitting contacts, keratometry,biomicroscopy (which I find harder than refracting) and can grind custom fits,bifocals,PALs etc., etc. than I think they can move to the next level.. You need basic anatomy and physiology to get to that point as well as a fairly good grasp of ocular problems ...
If any OD is worried, I think they can stop, unless we push the extended educational level we would never have a chance to get any thing approved to move to the next step any way.
They did try to have a big push a few years back here in FL. to do something and I told them they were wasting there time because they did not think it through (one of my accounts sits on the State board) They went it with the basic plan of "expanding" everyone's scope..sort of "bumping" them (that was their term not MINE) .. so you a non medical board is going to make changes to the state medical board? Right.. and this bumping thing... where exactly do you bump an OD.PA (physicians assistant) now they are an MD?
Some states have expanded the scope of OD's allowing them into the field of refractive surgery.. I'm anxious to see if that spreads as well...;)
I think most people tend to think "refracting" as being easier than what it really is .. till then I don't think any OD has much to worry about, except how to get away from all this insurance plans bringing down their earnings :p
Happy holidays
Jeff "make everything as simple as possible..but not simpler"Trail
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