Happy New Year, Blogosphere!
There’s nothing like the New Year to get you motivated for a fresh start and excited for the future—and I can tell this year is going to be one for the books! In four months, my long awaited, hard-earned, era of optometry school will have concluded. You read that right readers, this is it—2015—optometry school graduation is upon us! Now it’s time for lots and lots of preparation for the next leg in my journey.
Each day brings more and more good news from my classmates securing their first job placements. As for me, I’m applying to residencies and fellowships for the upcoming year. These programs offer selected students an opportunity to get advanced clinical training in a specific area of optometry like pediatrics, ocular disease, or specialty contact lenses. There are over 11 specialties for graduates to choose from. I finished the application process earlier this month and have secured interviews at all of the sites I applied to! That makes for a lot of travel over the next two months, since residency matching takes place the first week of March. Fortunately, I’m completing my last externship in a suburb of Washington, D.C., which puts me in close proximity to three international airports.
Speaking of my externship, I’m currently on my last rotation at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. The medical hospital is the main departure point and reentry center for active service men, women, and their families. It also services our retired military men and women, current foreign diplomats, our national political and military leaders, etc. A White House official needing multifocal contact lenses? Well, that’s all in a day’s work! Serving in a hospital setting offers new insight into a different healthcare setting, especially with the electronic records all interconnected to the other hospital service areas. What I’ve discovered is I can easily know exactly the diagnoses and treatments the patients have been receiving beyond the optometry clinic. The process of patient care record keeping is much more streamlined and efficient. I’ll have more details about my rotation and the many opportunities I get to take part in (think medically-necessary contact lens fits and lectures at the National Eye Institute at the National Institute of Health) in my next blog. Since I am not in the military, this rotation is fulfilling a greater purpose for me—one in which I am able to give back to the men, women, and their families who have sacrificed so much to protect our nation.
Stay tuned to my upcoming blog post, and enjoy the holiday photos from December!
I think I found my mini me in my little cousin!
Sibling Christmas Photo-op!
Carpe Diem,