Back at it!

My friends and I after the OOA student dinner. From left to right: Me, Lakshmi, Jessica, Mawada, and Fanita

Good afternoon!

I was told that school would go fast, but I could have never imagined it would go quite this fast! I cannot believe the second week of this semester is already almost over!

I was super excited to come back from Christmas break! I missed my friends, professors, and just the lifestyle of school. While days are sometimes long and chaotic, they are always fun. I enjoy the feeling of working toward something every day. While Christmas break was much needed and very enjoyable, I was getting antsy by the end.

Anyway, I already have tons to study, so I am going to hit some quick highlights since the semester has started. Last week we had the Ohio Optometric Association Student Dinner at the Faculty Club on campus. The dinner had the Secretary of State for Ohio, John Husted, come and speak about his interest in supporting optometry in Ohio. We also had various leaders from the national and local organization present. As optometry students, we are automatically student members of this organization. The Ohio Optometric Association is focused on advocating and lobbying for optometry in Ohio. The dinner was a chance for us to meet some officers in the national and local organization and network. I found the dinner to be a very valuable experience! We had dinner with an optometrist at the table. Then we rotated to different tables for the remainder of the evening to learn from the optometrists present. They offered professional contacts, advice, and shared about their practices.

Earlier this week we had our second Inter-Professional Education and Practice (IPEP) event. At the start of the school year, we had a day of orientation to meet with the other health professions, learn about the different fields, and simulate working together. This event was a dinner at the ballroom in the Ohio Union with Doug Wojcieszak as a guest speaker. Mr. Wojcieszak created Sorry Works! We spent the evening learning about cases of medical errors and how they were handled. We discussed the cases and learned about the best practices in handling such situations. Here is a link to the site http://sorryworkssite.bondwaresite.com/ if you want to learn more.

Lastly, this week was my first time in clinic! I spent an afternoon assisting a third year optometry student giving her eye exams. We were trained last semester to do lensometry, visual acuity, Ishihara test for color vision, and several other tests, so now we get to put those skills into practice! I absolutely loved being in clinic! I learned a lot from watching the third year student, and she let me look through the teaching scope and watch through her teaching mirror, so I got to be part of the whole exam process. We are all assigned about four hours of clinic time every other week. I cannot wait to go back!

Time to study neurons! We have a “Case of the Week (COW)” due tomorrow for pathophysiology, so I need to be prepared for that.