Student Life Blogs

Happy August, everyone! Only two more weeks left in this semester, and I will already be a third of the way done with year 3! Woo!

Obviously, the biggest change from last year to this year has been the start of clinic. I am in clinic on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays, but the day that I see patients in Adult Primary Care clinic is Thursday. I know I keep saying how big of a change it is, but it seriously is a huge change! We’ve been practicing our clinical skills in lab for two years, beginning with retinoscopy the first week of 1^st year. Between preparing for practicals and then pre-clinic checkouts, I’ve definitely put a lot of hours into practicing these skills. I think I was the most prepared that I could have been to start using them with patients, but it’s still so different to go into a patient encounter with your first real patient! I was more than a little nervous going into my first exam, but, like I said, we were very well prepared for this experience, and at some point I knew I’d have to just jump right in. My first patient was actually very straightforward, and I couldn’t have asked for a better first day!

One of the biggest lessons I’ve learned from this summer is to be patient with myself and with my clinical knowledge. It seems almost impossible to take all of the things we’ve learned from the classroom and in lab, and to throw them all together in clinic, but every week it gets more and more manageable. I love the feeling that I have no idea of what I could see during an exam, (though it also terrifies me at the same time) and this gives me something to look forward to every week.

Comparing clinical cases with other classmates, I know that there are so many possible patient encounters to experience in Memphis and at The Eye Center. Hearing my classmates’ stories and thinking about my own experiences, I really feel like being in clinic solidifies everything I love about optometry. It has definitely been a challenge, but certainly a welcome one after putting in two years of hard work to get to this point!

So, that’s all for now. I’m gearing up for finals next week, and am also in the process of choosing externship site locations for next year, so stay tuned for more updates on that! Enjoy the last few weeks of summer, y’all :)

Hi again, everyone!

It’s crazy to think that I’m already halfway through first semester of third year!

This summer has been already been extremely busy so far, and unbelievably different from third year. We are still doing a mixture of classes and labs, with the added element of clinic! I am really enjoying having so many patient encounters, and feeling like I’m finally doing what I came here to do. I will share more on my clinical experience in a few months—so stay tuned for that!

In addition to being in various clinical departments 3 days a week, my classmates and I have had various after-hours opportunities for patient care. The first two were a part of our contact lens course, and involved two nights of contact lens fitting workshops. They were both through a program called STAPLE- the Soft Toric and Presbyopic Lens Education Program- and they gave us the chance to fit lenses on patients other than our classmates. The first night was the toric workshop (for patients with astigmatism) and the second was for patients over 40 who wanted to be fit with multifocal lenses for both distance and near vision. Both nights were really wonderful experiences. I wore contact lenses for over ten years so I have no problem putting them on myself, but it is always daunting to insert and remove a lens on someone else’s eye. Also, as students we are often very cooperative patients so it was much more realistic to be able to practice on people from the community. I think we are so fortunate at SCO to have some amazing contact lens didactic education (Dr. Jackson is the best!), but the hands-on experience is really invaluable for future practice. Contact lenses are such a huge part of the optometric world, and I really want to feel confident in this aspect of clinical care. It was great to feel like I was able to get a jumpstart on this through these workshops.

Another extra activity that I recently completely through SCO was a Saturday Service Experience. As third years, we have a service requirement to complete, and this was one of the components of that. To be honest, I was not all that excited to spend my Saturday morning at school doing an eye exam (sorry, Dr. McGriff!), but this experience was incredibly rewarding. We gave exams to patients from various drug and alcohol rehabilitation programs throughout Memphis, and were encouraged to spend a lot of time getting to know our patients more than we would get to during a normal exam; we even had lunch with them afterwards. It was a great feeling to be able to provide eye care, even if it was just a glasses prescription, to people who needed it, and I genuinely enjoyed talking to and learning about my patient. These are the kinds of patient encounters that will not only enhance my optometric career and practice, but also impact who I am as a person. Turns out, it wasn’t such a bad way to spend a Saturday morning after all!

Whew, who knew I could be so long-winded on a Sunday night? Other than clinic and classes, I’m busy finding ways to stay cool in HOT Memphis July. I’m looking forward to continuing this semester and seeing what else third year has in store for me. Until next time!