First Year
In the first month of the year, residents attend a series of orientation lectures to ease the transition to the practice of clinical ophthalmology. During this time, training includes use of specialized equipment like the slit lamp and indirect ophthalmoscope. Residents develop such skills as refraction, basic eye examination and ophthalmic history taking, all of which will be further developed by examining patients in the Ophthalmology Clinic and hospital consultation service. The first year includes rotations at the Columbus VA clinic, Dayton VA clinic, Nationwide Children's Hospital, and selected subspecialty rotations.
Second Year
The second year consists of rotations in Retina, Anterior Segment, Pediatrics, and the Veteran’s Administration rotations. In the Retina and Anterior Segment rotations, residents work closely with the attending faculty in the office and operating room. The Pediatric rotation has a new state-of-the-art Resident Clinic. Residents gain extensive surgical experience in strabismus, tear duct procedures and trauma cases. The clinic is resident-run and is staffed by the attendings at Children’s Hospital.
During the Veteran’s Administration rotation, residents receive intraocular surgical experience. Residents first master extracapsular cataract extraction and then proceed to phacoemulsification. All surgical cases at the Veteran’s Administration Hospital are performed by the residents with attending staff. All laser procedures are performed by the residents and staffed by qualified attendings..
Third Year
The third year consists of Oculoplastics & Orbit, Veteran’s Administration clinics and OSU clinic rotations. In the Oculoplastics rotation residents obtain surgical experience with common oculoplastic procedures and management in the operating room and office setting. During the Veteran’s Administration rotation, the third-year resident performs phacoemulsification, all oculoplastic cases and retina surgery. A significant portion of the third year is spent in the OSU Clinic. Residents gain extensive surgical training by managing surgical and medical patients under supervision of faculty from all subspecialty areas. This frequent interaction with patients with a variety of medical and surgical eye diseases aims to strengthen residents' clinical training.
Resident Evaluations
Feedback and early identification of problem areas are essential to a successful residency program. The entire faculty reviews each resident’s performance four times per year. The program director then meets with the residents individually two times per year to address both strengths and weaknesses of their performance. Residents receive a written evaluation of their progress at the end of each rotation, and complete the Ophthalmic Knowledge Assessment Program (OKAP), a standardized test administered to all ophthalmology residents. OKAP test scores are also used to evaluate residents’ performance.