Optometrists are on the frontline fighting avoidable vision loss. Their role spans early detection, management, public‑health advocacy and increasing access to care.
QEI doctors recognise the pivotal role played by their colleagues, offering regular professional development seminars and workshops to practising optometrists and training placements to optometry students.
Clinical Operations Coordinator Tina Huynh manages QEI’s optometry education program and says student placements are in high demand. “Students get to see many different eye diseases when they’re here – diseases they might have only seen once during their studies,” Tina says. “Our ophthalmologists are very committed to including students as much as possible.”
For QUT student Henry Lam, a recent placement with QEI’s Associate Professor Anthony Kwan taught him a lot, particularly how to interact with patients.
“You learn things from textbook, and it’s very formalized, but eventually you’re going to have to explain what you learned to a patient,” Henry says. “Hearing someone like Dr Kwan explain things to them, you get to hear the terminology that makes it understandable.”
The fast pace of a large ophthalmology clinic is very different from the learning experience at a public hospital. “Just today, in the morning alone, we’ve already seen 20 patients,” Henry says. “That’s more than I saw in an entire day at a hospital placement.”
Having a one-to-one, real world learning environment is invaluable. “There’s a lot more opportunities to jump in and see things that I wouldn’t get to see at uni”, Henry says. “It’s also a safe space where I can ask questions.”
The placements give students exposure to specialist procedures they won’t see in an optometry setting, which ultimately helps their patients. “Seeing the ophthalmologists do procedures like injections and laser mean you actually understand what’s happening from the patient’s point of view,” Henry says. “So, when you have to tell a patient they might need to have one of those treatments, you can better explain what that will be like.”
To enquire about optometry and medical student placements at QEI email education@qei.org.au