Stage One Visit Two -The hardest assessment!
In terms of stage One, visit two is probably the hardest assessment part of Stage One. How I prepared for visit two was by making sure that I had the patient records that I needed.
Utilising your wider team!
The best way about finding the individual patient records that are needed is to let the shopfloor staff know that there is a certain patient encounter that is required and with the help of the optical consultants, they are able to find these patients and book them within your specified clinic,
As a pre-reg its always difficult to be testing and performing shopfloor tasks hence so your optical assistant team are your strongest allies to help you find the patients that you require.
As a pre-reg you want to be testing as many patients as you can and rightly so. This will build your experience of different patients and enable you to learn how to handle the different patients that can walk into practice.
There may be the young straightforward routine patient attending for their two-yearly check-ups to the seasoned 80-year-old patient who may walk in with a condition such as AMD, or maybe a patient with their post cats operative review, you just never know who’ll walk into the door for a sight test on any day!
33 Competencies in the Stage One Visit Two assessment!
There are 33 competencies that are assessed on visit 2 and some are really difficult to achieve. One example would be testing a patient with a colour vision defect. Colour vision defects are rare and it’s not like a patient who has had a colour vision defect will come into practice telling you that they have one! Also this is a complaint that is sometimes overlooked by an optometrist. Colour vision tests are normally performed on the first sight test of a patient, if a defect is picked up then, then a patient would probably know that they have a colour vision deficiency, it’s not like they will tell you on their sight test they have a colour vision deficiency if it’s been longstanding.
Swapping Visit Two competencies with Visit Three
Another great way to achieve and be successful in visit two and achieve competencies is by swapping some competencies of visit 3 and bringing them forward into visit two, there’s no harm in swapping competencies bringing these competencies forward. It maybe easier to find patient records for these competencies, even if they’re from a different visit.
Looking for a new role after you qualify?
To talk to us about a new role after you qualify as an optometrist visit our optometry jobs page to view all our roles or give us a call on 01423 813452 or email us at [email protected]
If you’re having difficulty in your pre-reg and need some help visit this AOP page which gives advice and support for Optical professionals.