The Illinois College of Optometry Student Blog

Sometimes, when I’m working with a patient, it suddenly occurs to me how natural it feels to perform my clinical skills. I don’t claim to be perfect at everything I do. I am far from the best, and watching my attendings demonstrate their mastery over slit lamp and BIO humbles me even on my good days. Although I have a long way to go, one thing is starting to become clear. Everything I’ve learned so far at ICO is coming together. All the time I spent studying in first year for

The Thursday before Easter break, third years received our summer quarter schedules. This is our first quarter as third years. It is scary to think that, in less than two months, I will be seeing patients by myself. No longer will we have the safety blanket of one of our peers there to make sure we are doing everything correctly. However, it is also exciting, because it is our next step to becoming real optometrists. We will finally be given the the most challenging patient c

This year, my classmates and I are being introduced into the clinic. We get to do what we came to optometry school to do. Sweet. The rules of the game: The class is broken down into two groups. Each group has six clinic shifts – one each week. One group gets to be in clinic for the first half of the quarter; The second group takes the second half. Students work in pairs to do clinical exams on real patients. They must perform the skills they know how to do. The Attending Clin