Abstract
Purpose :
To survey medical students at the Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine to assess their understanding of basic ophthalmologic care guidelines and confidence in performing a basic eye examination as well as their personal practices of seeing eye-care providers.
Methods :
Medical students who completed the ophthalmology curriculum at the Zucker School of Medicine were surveyed from January-March 2022 on ophthalmologic care guidelines and confidence in performing a basic eye examination, as well as personal practices of seeing eye-care providers. Data was analyzed on the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences.
Results :
82 medical students (28.7% response rate) completed the survey. 28.0% of respondents had never seen an optometrist and 46.3% had never seen an ophthalmologist. Personal history of ocular disease, use of corrective lenses, and family history of ocular disease were significantly associated with having ever been seen by either an ophthalmologist or an optometrist (p<0.032; Pearson Chi-Square). The majority of students (80.5%) correctly answered that it was never acceptable to sleep with contacts. There was a significant difference between years, with fourth-year students having the worst correct response rate of 61.2% (p=0.007; Pearson Chi-Square). A minority of students knew how often patients under 40 (17.1%) and patients over 40 (23.2%) should have comprehensive eye examinations, according to the American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO) Preferred Practice Patterns (PPP). Interest in ophthalmology was associated with correctly answering how often patients under 40 should receive comprehensive eye examinations by an ophthalmologist (55.6% vs 14.3%; p=0.001; Pearson Chi-Square). Most students were comfortable assessing extraocular motility (90.3%), visual fields (86.6%), pupils (69.6%), and visual acuity (65.9%). Overall, few students (17.1%) expressed dissatisfaction with the curriculum.
Conclusions :
Among the students surveyed, use of corrective lenses and either a personal or family history of ocular disease were associated with having ever been seen by an eye-care provider. In general, students are neutral or satisfied with their ophthalmology curriculum and feel comfortable conducting a basic ophthalmologic examination. However, they have limited understanding of the eye examination guidelines outlined in the AAO PPP.
This abstract was presented at the 2023 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in New Orleans, LA, April 23-27, 2023.