Clinical Placement Program – Opportunities to host student placements

External clinical placements are an integral component of the Doctor of Optometry (OD) course. The final year of this four-year course is an intensive clinical internship year with students being exposed to various external practice settings.

Optometry at Melbourne understands the importance to students of authentic participation and is working hard to prepare them for the diverse challenges of practice. The OD program admits postgraduate students who have a mature commitment to their professional pathway.

Placements in are metropolitan, rural, interstate, and overseas venues. The aim of the placements is to integrate optometric knowledge gained during the students' first three years of study with clinical presentations in a variety of clinical settings. It will consolidate what students have learned and help them in developing and improving the clinical skills necessary to practice optometry and serve patients in a safe and effective manner.

We are currently looking for additional rural placement partners as well as interested practices in metropolitan locations that might host students.

We are interested in working with practices that would take a student for 3-4 days per week for 2 weeks.

Ideally:

* The Intern Supervisor will ideally hold an endorsement for scheduled medicines (except for certain specialist placements);

* The Intern Supervisor has a minimum of 3 years’ experience post-graduation/ registration in the field;

* The External Placement Practice is committed to quality improvement processes;

* The External Placement Practice has a patient base that will expose students to a wide range of optometric presentations; and ideally allow for some one on one consultations over the two-week period

* The External Placement Practice is able to occupy the student in a variety of tasks that will meet the objectives of the placement;

* Ability to commit to the duration of the external placement (dependant on the type of practice);

* Be able to obtain patient consent prior to consultation.

If you are interested in learning more about our clinical placement program, please contact: Anthea Cochrane: antheac@unimelb.edu.au