Cornea and Contact Lens Residency

(One position available)
This program provides the resident with an opportunity to gain clinical experience and expertise in the areas of advanced contact lens fitting and diagnosis and management of corneal conditions. The resident provides contact lens care to a large number of patients from the Cherokee Nation Hastings Hospital clinical population. The Cornea and Contact Lenses resident has the opportunity to work with nationally known visiting clinicians in a dozen "hands-on" specialty lens design contact lens fitting workshops. He/she is also involved in the therapeutic management of a variety of anterior segment conditions and is exposed to operative and post-operative care of refractive surgery cases.

A regularly scheduled residency seminar promotes literature review and study. Teaching is another important aspect of this program, with opportunities to become involved in didactic and clinical education of optometry students, optometrists, and other health care providers. A publishable quality paper is required, and other contact lens related research and case reports are encouraged.

Expected weekly hours of duty are 40 hours per week plus evening and weekend emergency room eye care at Cherokee Nation Hastings Hospital approximately one week per month. Attendance of continuing education may lengthen the weekly hours of duties.

Please see the NSU Staff Handbook for specific information regarding health insurance provided.

Residents are provided leave benefits. Residents receive 10 days of vacation. They accrue personal leave (which includes sick leave, personal business leave, bereavement leave, military leave, and jury duty leave) at the rate of 12.0 hours per month. NSU is closed for several holidays (3 days at Thanksgiving, the week between Christmas and New Year’s Day, Memorial Day, Labor Day, Spring Break (2 days), Fall Break (2 days), and Fourth of July holiday. At the beginning of the year, residents are assigned which holidays they are on call. Residents are asked to volunteer for which holidays they prefer to be on call for first. If volunteering fails to cover all holidays, then names are drawn to determine who receives which holidays. If the resident is not scheduled to be on call, the resident is not expected to be at work on these holidays and they are not taken from his or her vacation. Residents also receive professional leave to attend continuing education meetings.  The amount of professional leave each resident receives is at the discretion of the Residency Supervisor. The Supervisor encourages attendance at CE courses. Please see the NSU Staff Handbook for a more in-depth discussion of personal leave and holidays. 

Specific requirements are in place for program completion and awarding of the Certificate of Advanced Clinical Competence. The requirements are as follows:

  • Completed publishable quality paper (research paper, literature review, or case report), all Patient Encounter Logs with encounter types, and all Residency Activity Logs.
  • Completed exit evaluations (Evaluation of Clinical Supervisors, Evaluation of Residency Program Supervisor, Evaluation of NSUCO Residency Director, and Residency Program Evaluation).
  • Passage of NBEO Part I, II and III including passage of the TMOD.

ASCO Information Sheet

E-mail the Cornea and Contact Lens Supervisor,  Latricia Pack O.D., F.A.A.O.

Optometrist inserting eye washing contact into patient.
 

 

 

Mission, Goals, Objectives

Mission

The mission of the Residency in Cornea and Contact Lenses is to provide advanced clinical training for post-graduate optometrists with emphasis in contact lenses and anterior segment conditions, allowing residents upon completion of the program to pursue professional opportunities which require a high level of clinical expertise.

Goal A

Provide appropriately supervised clinical educational experiences with emphasis in contact lenses and anterior segment conditions.

Objectives:

  • Provide the resident a minimum of 1000 patient encounters.
  • Provide the resident exposure to a high diversity of clinical conditions within contact lenses and anterior segment conditions.
  • Encourage appropriate referral and co-management of patients with other health care providers.
  • Allow the resident to participate in the clinical supervision of optometry students.

Goal B

Stimulate scholarly development in the resident.

Objectives:

  • Encourage lecture and workshop presentations in the form of continuing education, grand rounds, optometry classroom, etc.
  • Stimulate life-long learning by keeping the resident active in critically reviewing ophthalmic literature.
  • Allow the resident to attend continuing education courses.
  • Require completion of a research paper, literature review, or case report of publishable quality by the end of the residency program.

Goal C

Stimulate a commitment to service in the resident.

Objectives:

  • Enhance the resident's active involvement in the optometric community by encouraging membership and participation in optometric organizations.