OPTOMETRY SCHOOL IS a rigorous four-year journey that starts in the classroom with theoretical knowledge and evolves into clinical care with real patients. While excelling in the classroom and on written exams is important, adept performance in clinical care is the penultimate goal. The transition from classroom learning to real-world application is where clinical coaching and training come into play—an often underappreciated yet crucial component of professional development. As an alumnus of MBKU and clinical faculty for over a decade, here are some insights I can offer about MBKU’s robust clinical coaching program.
Faculty Mentorship
Even before the first year of school starts, MBKU administrators are already working on pairing the incoming class with Faculty and Peer Mentors. These mentors check in regularly with their students and are available to guide them throughout their entire journey in optometry school, including the transition from the classroom to the clinic. With my personal experience as an MBKU student and now as a professional, I can give tailored and specific advice to my students, based on my journey, to best prepare them for the real world starting their freshman year. As a faculty mentor, my mentees often ask what they can do to obtain more hands-on experience. I always advise them to get out there and volunteer! MBKU offers a ton of such opportunities. Students get to hone their clinical skills, get exposure to a variety of ocular conditions, and provide much-needed care to underserved communities. They also get to network with other optometrists and upperclassmen. It is a win-win situation! Mentorship enriches the educational experience by providing support when needed, both academic and emotional, and connecting students to the resources they need to excel, whether it is extra tutoring for a class or hands-on extracurricular activities to prepare for the clinic.
A Plethora of Clinical Settings
The first three years of optometry school are a hybrid of didactic work in the classroom and clinical care at the college’s in-house clinic, Ketchum Health. The coursework becomes more and more hands-on as the years progress, culminating in clinical rotations during the fourth year. This is where MBKU shines. Students can select from a wide range of clinical settings including private practice, Veterans Affairs hospitals, Indian Health Services, ophthalmology co-management, military base care and much more. Each rotation offers exposure to very different patient populations, modalities of practice, and faculty oversight. Some sites offer high volumes of ocular disease, such as glaucoma and diabetic retinopathy, while other sites focus more on routine eyecare. Some sites serve mostly geriatric patients while others serve entire families. Some sites focus solely on medical care while others offer insight into the business aspects of running a practice, including scheduling, billing, and coding. Students choose three sites as part of their fourth-year clinical rotations across the country, with some sites even oversees in unique places like Japan. During this year, students hone their clinical skills in various settings under the tutelage of diverse clinic instructors. This diversity helps broaden their knowledge and clinical decision-making in real-world settings with varied and challenging patient bases. Students are exposed to diagnosing and managing a plethora of complex visual and ocular conditions and are taught to problem-solve in dynamic situations. Coaching from attending faculty helps students buff their clinical acumen by bridging the gap between the learned classroom theoretical and the actual—a real, live patient.
An Emphasis on Interprofessional Collaboration
Collaborative care in optometry helps create a more integrated and effective approach to managing both ocular and systemic health. Eyecare is about far more than glasses and contact lenses—that is just the surface! Many common systemic diseases such as diabetes and hypertension can affect ocular health and cause vision problems. It is imperative that optometrists are comfortable with communicating and working with other professionals to address the patient’s global medical needs. The framework for interprofessional cooperation begins in the classroom, utilizing assignments that involve participation from MBKU’s optometry, physicians assistants and pharmacy students. Optometry students then move onto clinical care and build upon this framework with nuanced insight regarding how to communicate with other healthcare professionals. This becomes particularly important in everyday clinical scenarios such as communicating with primary care doctors for diabetic patients and writing ophthalmic prescriptions for ocular diseases. When professionals collaborate with each other, it leads to better patient outcomes and a more comprehensive, modern healthcare experience.
Building Professional Confidence
Clinical coaching ensures that students gain proficiency through repetition and feedback. There is only so much one can learn from a textbook! Unlike large lecture halls where individual performance might go unnoticed, clinical coaching during rotations offers a more tailored approach. Coaches can identify specific areas where students excel and others where they need improvement, allowing for targeted development. This constructive feedback helps students grow and adapt, ensuring they are well-prepared for independent practice. When I work with students in my clinic, I can quickly identify deficient areas in need of improvement, whether it be knowledge, clinical decision-making, efficiency, medical charting or verbal communication. Starting out in a new clinical setting is oftentimes daunting. Each rotation has different equipment and administrative protocols to learn and utilize proficiently. Adaptation can be difficult. This is why clinical coaching in real-time is imperative to providing immediate feedback and action plans for improvement. With repeated exposure to challenging patient cases, continued experience with problem-solving and positive reinforcement, students inevitably become more reassured in their clinical abilities. The goal for clinical coaches is always to foster professional competence and confidence in every student they train.
Conclusion
Clinical coaching is the bridge between theoretical knowledge and practical expertise. It enhances technical skill, medical knowledge, clinical decision-making and communication skills ultimately creating a proficient and confident doctor who can handle any challenge in the real world. The clinical coaching MBKU students receive during school often carries over to life after graduation where alumni, like myself, maintain relationships with peers and faculty resulting in a robust network of optometric support.
About The Author:
Lisa Wahl OD, FAAO is an optometrist practicing in Los Angeles, California and is an assistant professor at Marshall B. Ketchum University. She is the coordinator of Cornea and Contact Lens Services at University Eye Center Los Angeles and works predominately in clinical care with fourth-year optometry interns. Dr. Wahl graduated from UCLA with a B.S. in Biology and a minor in English Literature. She received her doctorate at Southern California College of Optometry, graduating Summa Cum Laude, and completed residency training in ocular disease at VA Los Angeles Ambulatory Care Center. Thereafter, she worked a prominent ophthalmology practice in Los Angeles, providing pre and postoperative care for patients undergoing refractive, cataract and corneal surgery. Her areas of interest are medically necessary contact lenses, dry eye and ocular pathology. She is an investigator in several research studies at Marshall B. Ketchum University and frequently lectures at continuing education seminars. In her free time, she enjoys lifting weights, traveling and exploring the local restaurant scene.
