The Illinois College of Optometry Student Blog

To practice being a doctor, sometimes you have to sit as a patient Last year, we learned visual acuity, entrance tests, direct ophthalmoscopy, and refraction. Last quarter, we learned near testing. Now, we have taken a turn for the… worse? If you consider learning slit lamp and BIO the worst, then you won’t think I’m over exaggerating. First Experience: I heard the slit lamp lab was very relaxed and not that hard. I walked into lab and found my patient. We both agreed we had

Half way through our second year, the class of 2016 has had plenty of experience in lab. By now, we’re all comfortable with practically pressing our faces together for Direct Ophthalmoscopy, or contorting the faces of our patients to get a good look for BIO. I’d like to give a few pointers on simple etiquette in lab that we’ve all learned since first year. Some of this may seem obvious, but as we get more comfortable and get into a routine, we often fall into bad habits uncon

Life as a third year isn’t so bad right now. We had our first pediatrics lab with Dr. Allison, and since the majority of the class is made up of females, there was a huge estrogen-driven chorus of  “aww”  every few minutes. We watched videos of how to perform eye exams for infants, toddlers and pre-school children. Each lab, ICO faculty members volunteer to bring their young children to be our practice patients. You’d imagine that these kids would feel shy, or be intimidated