COVID-19: Ensuring safe clinical teaching at university optometry schools

Sven Jonuscheit*, Andrew K.C. Lam, Katrina L. Schmid, John Flanagan, Raul Martin, David Troilo

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

15 Citations (Scopus)
174 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has been spreading across the globe for several months. The nature of the virus (SARS-CoV-2) with easy person-to-person transmissions and the severe clinical course observed in some people necessitated unprecedented modifications of everyday social interactions. These included the temporary suspension of considerable elements of clinical teaching at optometry schools worldwide. This article describes the challenges optometry schools were facing in early to mid 2020. The paper highlights the experiences of six universities in five countries on four continents. Strategies to minimise the risk of virus transmission, to ensure safe clinical optometric teaching and how to overcome the challenges presented by COVID-19 are described. An outlook on opportunities to further improve optometric education is provided.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)144-156
Number of pages13
JournalOphthalmic and Physiological Optics
Volume41
Issue number1
Early online date17 Dec 2020
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Jan 2021

Keywords

  • Covid-19
  • optometry
  • higher education
  • clinical teaching

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Sensory Systems
  • Ophthalmology
  • Optometry

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