Another successful Scottish Optical Conference (SOC, and formally known as SCLOSS) took place at the end of last year. The sell-out event included lectures and workshops on a diverse range of topics, ranging from dry disease management and myopia therapy through to the latest in technological innovation and management practice. One aspect I was very impressed by this year was the exhibition. The organisers had, as one would hope, included all the leading industry players, but had also found room for some interesting entrepreneurs who were able to show delegates their latest ideas.
Deal with it
Astute readers may remember Michelle Snowball from her hand-held meibography pen she wrote about some years back (Optician 02.06.15). With the same imagination that led her to develop the pen during her pre-reg year, Snowball, now a PhD student, has come up with a card game aimed at helping students and practitioners consolidate their clinical knowledge.
Deal With It includes a set of 50 scenario cards all based on real life patients met in practice by Snowball over the Past few years (fig 1). Each scenario has some background information, the spectacle refraction and a diagnosis of any underlying condition (figure 2).
Figure 2: The deck has scenarios Michelle Snowball has encountered
Scenarios range from the paediatric through to the elderly and include conditions expected to be managed by refractive means or simple reassurance through to others requiring emergency referral to the appropriate support service. The player selects as many scenarios as they feel they can address in any given time and then, for each scenario, selects one of five action cards (figure 3) as follows:
- Manage – discuss what you would do with the patient and/or carer.
- Respond – answer a question the patient might raise.
- Adapt – how might you adapt your examination of this patient?
- Signs and symptoms – what might these be and how do they link to the refraction or condition?
- Explain – explain the condition in a way the patient will understand.
Figure 3: Action cards
I particularly like this design as, unlike simple fact checking on optometry and ophthalmology as is currently available in any number of quiz-style text books, the game addresses the communication element. The current pre-registration process has, quite rightly, increased focus upon communication skills and some of the OSCE stations that many find most challenging include those where diseases or management plans have to be explained to actors. I think Deal With It should be an essential learning tool for pre-registration optometrists but would also make for excellent source material for qualified practitioners, either as a simple way of developing discussions or as the basis of a peer discussion session.
For further information, and to obtain the latest game, go to www.msnowball.org.uk
Eye safety card
Another of our young entrepreneurs seen at the SOC was Scottish hospital optometrist Stanley Keys, again perhaps recalled by some readers for his authorship of previous Optician articles on subjects as diverse as diabetes and arthritis some years back.
Since the introduction of the GOC Standards of Practice guidelines a couple of years back, most of us have become very aware of the responsibility we have relating to the training and maintenance of understanding among our fellow staff members. I recall the days where someone might show up at the front desk of a practice with symptoms that could be suggestive of a retinal detachment only to be told there was no appointment available that day and then to be booked in days later. Though most staff are more than aware of the nature of significant symptoms, presentations might not always be so obviously of concern to them. Ultimately, the buck stops with the registered practitioner, just as it does with regard to any delegated tasks such as photography, fields, OCT and so on, and so anything that can help in the training and education of support staff must be of value.
In 2017, Keys set up the website Optometry-Evolution to support his development of the Eye Safety Card. As Keys explained to me: ‘The original idea was for this to be a red-flag warning card for practice support staff so that potential ocular emergencies get appointed urgently. I then developed the website www.optometry-evolution.com as a platform for the card, but have since been publishing short clinical articles and PDFs for optometrists in order to build up this resource.’
The two-sided laminated card is designed to be kept at reception desks and help any staff member to interpret presenting symptoms and be able to better identify where further action is needed and with what degree of urgency (figure 4).
Figure 4: Stanley Keys’ Eye Safety Cards
Interest in the project has been impressive so Keys is currently evolving his project. ‘I am currently in the process of getting a designer to redevelop the site so it is a lot slicker and more user-friendly, and will continue to add useful content.
‘With the cards, I am also going to develop a resource pack incorporating these. The pack will be an A4 pack which will include some of the cards, some triage guidance and staff training tools, such as scenarios, which can be used for a training exercise. So this will be a much more useful resource for practices in that they have the cards, but also a simple means of delivering some training and support to their staff. Further plans include doing a ‘glaucoma detection pack’ for optometrists, but that will take a bit more time.’
Both of these ideas work well and it is great to see such imaginative projects from the latest generation of optometrists. Look out for further developments soon.