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Externships: Goals and Faculty and Clinic Responsibilities

Goals

As part of its Program, School has established an extern program with the overall goals of broadening the clinical, professional, and personal education experiences of fourth year O.D. program externs of School, and educating and training such externs to deliver the highest quality patient care and service, and to enhance the technical, analytical, and patient management skills of externs through patient-based experiential learning in a primary care eye clinic. Clinic and Clinic Faculty shall provide Clinic Training Services in furtherance of and consistent with such goals.

Clinic Faculty

Clinic Faculty shall:

  1. Be directly responsible for: assuring the delivery of high quality patient-centered optometric care, supervising the activities of the students assigned to them, teaching clinical care by demonstration and discussion, teaching and training the students to an appropriate level of clinical competency, evaluating the clinical performance of students, and advising/documenting students who are in need of remediation. Clinic Faculty shall serve not only as instructors, but also as role models and mentors.
  2. Be available to provide guidance to each student and furnish assistance with any problems encountered through advice or demonstration.
  3. Repeat any procedure deemed necessary to ensure safe and effective delivery of optometric care.
  4. Ensure that the student clearly explains the management plan to the patient and properly educates the student regarding clinical findings.
  5. Review each patient record after completion of the examination, to check for accurate and complete documentation.
  6. Evaluate the performance and monitor the progress of each student and provide the appropriate feedback so that the student can take the appropriate steps to improve upon his/her skills/knowledge.
  7. Act as a facilitator and resource by providing a didactic program on a frequent basis: demonstrating/teaching new or advanced examination techniques; holding case conferences or seminars to review conditions the student has seen; and holding discussions on journal articles that are distributed to the student.
  8. Provide an evaluation of the student’s performance at the mid-rotation (midterm) and at the end of the rotation, including a thorough discussion with the student on how the student can improve upon those areas that are indicated on the evaluation.
  9. Inform the Externship Director and Associate Dean of Clinical Affairs at UC Berkeley School of Optometry of any clinical deficiencies on the part of the student in a timely manner and provide a plan on how they will work with the student to improve in the indicated areas.
  10. Ensure that high-quality patient-centered optometric care is provided for all patients including patients who have interaction with students.
  11. Educate and involve the student in the Clinic’s quality assurance, performance improvement and risk management programs.
  12. Educate and train students in accordance with applicable standards and requirements of the ACOE, the American College of Optometry, and the American Optometric Association Ethics and Values,
  13. Educate and train students to develop those qualities which typify professional conduct, including:
    • a. Attention to, interest in, respect for, concern for, and response to the needs of the patient.
    • b. Initiative and responsible activity in patient care.
    • c. Promptness and fidelity in meeting clinical assignments.
    • d. Maintenance of appearance, hygiene, and manner appropriate to a health care student.
    • e. A cooperative attitude towards peers and clinical personnel, Clinic Faculty, and well as the patients.
    • f. Attention and response to instruction from Clinic Faculty.
    • g. Modifications in behavior as a result of previous instruction.
    • h. Recognition of deficiencies in skill or knowledge and the earnest attempt to correct deficiencies.
    • i. Knowledge and adherence to applicable law and regulations, including without limitation HIPAA

Clinic

Clinic shall:

  1. Provide a safe environment for patient-based clinical education.
  2. Provide an orientation, and policies and procedures, to guide students in their clinical assignments.
  3. Provide opportunities for instruction in clinical optometry and sufficient patient encounters to conduct the instruction, and insofar as possible, an interdisciplinary clinical training experience.
  4. Provide an optometrist to coordinate the schedule of the students, prevent conflicts during the student’s clinical learning experience, and orient, supervise, and evaluate the clinical performance of the students.

Students

Students will not perform any clinical skill or test which they do not feel comfortable. Students will work directly with the Clinic to improve and master new skills. Students are encouraged to practice full scope optometry responsibly and under the supervision of the Clinic. If a student is found to be a danger to patients or patient care in a physical, clinical, emotional, or any other way, the student will be removed from clinical service for one day, and Clinic will notify School of same immediately. No student will be removed from the Clinic for a period of longer than one day without the advance written approval of School.