Two Hectic Days

I continue my streak of having someone else write my columns, below is one from my current extern. enjoy


Extern Life

How is it going fellow MOA members? My name is Kevin Wheat and I am a third year student extern with Dr. John Burns from Pennsylvania College of Optometry. He asked me if I could give you a sneak peak on being a student extern at his office.  So far I would say my experience has been very atypical for a student extern.  

I arrived at his Clinton, MD office on Monday morning to sit in on a conference call with members of the MOA legislative PAC.  Most of the conversation went right over my head.  It was a very important phone call nonetheless; and it was great to see how much thought and effort goes into our state and national organizations to help make optometry thrive.

Patient care was a breath of fresh air compared to clinical assignments at Pennsylvania College of Optometry.  I hated writing lengthy assessment and plans by hand with my terrible penmanship at TEI.  Thankfully Dr. Burns believes in electronic health records.

I have become more familiar with contact lenses because, who knew?.... patients outside of TEI actually want to be fitted for contact lenses!  I also got to see my first OrthoK patient. Due to Christmas break and studying for my boards, I haven't touched a phoropter in a month and a half, so my refracting skills were a little rusty, to say the least.  At the end of the day we talked a little bit about finances and how the office did for the day.  It has gave me hope knowing that someday I might be able to pay off my student loans.   

Then I will be able to put my own name on the door.

On day two we set up a meeting with Eye Designs in Collegeville, PA to negotiate and design a renovation of the optical and welcome area at the office.  It was a great experience to see first hand how the factory makes and prepares the materials to be shipped out across the nation.  The people at Eye Designs shared a ton of knowledge on how to showcase the frames in the dispensary.   The best part of the experience was trying to pick out the color schemes and finishes.

Needless to say not one of us from the office are designers, it took forever!

On the way back we stopped by a quarterly meeting in Baltimore for a buying group Dr. Burns is a part of.   We heard about some new things occurring in the industry to help with practice management, contact lens research, etc.  At the end of the meeting Dr. Burns gave a little report on what the MOA had been doing as of late.

So far it has been a wonderful experience learning about the industry and meeting amazing people along the way.  If you are interested in having a 3rd year PCO student rotate through your practice during the months of February to May please contact Maria Parisi at mparisi@salus.edu or215.780.1347.