British and Irish University and College Contact Lens Educators (BUCCLE) has announced a competition to encourage students to embrace challenging patients.
The competition involves submitting a case report on a patient seen by a student. It is divided into two categories; a patient who presented a challenge to successfully fit contact lenses and a patient with anterior eye disorder requiring management. It will run for the first time this academic year and is open to undergraduate optometry or contact lens optician student.
Two winners will be selected and will each receive £250 and travel and accommodation to the BCLA conference the following year. They will then present their case reports at the conference.
BUCCLE aims to illustrate how anyone can wear contact lenses when given the appropriate fitting and range of choice. It hopes the prize will encourage students to grasp opportunities to deal with challenging patient cases and, in some cases, to even search these out.
It is hoped that by attending the BCLA conference, and presenting their reports to delegates, students will be further enthused to continue their studies into contact lenses after graduation.