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Blogpost Week 4

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     To restate my initial goals, I was hoping to learn to become an ophthalmic technician, understand some of the pathology and anatomy of ophthalmic diseases, and finally, learn about how ophthalmology and specialty care fits into the larger picture(and healthcare in general). This week, I feel like I finally have become an "official technician" as I have begun not only working up patients by taking OCT scans, visual acuity tests, and eye pressure, but also following up with prepping many of them for injections which requires an additional set of knowledge and skills. Patients' eyes must be numbed at least three times with a numbing drop, cleaned with a drop of beta iodine and a swab(for the outer lids and lashes), and lastly draped with a plastic sheet. This all occurs while the technician prepares sterile gloves, the injection medicine, and other items necessary for the shot( including a needle and specs depending on the type of medicine being used). I...
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Blogpost Week 3

       This week, not only have I progressed a ton from where I first started, but I began working up patients completely by myself on Wednesday! It is such a satisfying feeling to be able to scan the patient's retina using the optical coherence tomography(OCT), test visual acuity, take eye pressure, and prep for injections knowing that I am making a difference( even if its a small one) in the work place. Because of this, on Wednesday(the same day that I started doing everything by myself), one of the leading ophthalmic technicians realized that the NW office was understaffed and selected me as one of the technicians to help fill in-- which meant I would have to travel 40 minutes after lunch from Oregon City to Northwest Portland. Although I am sure most of the other techs would've been annoyed to have to move locations in the middle of the day, I felt extremely honored that he thought me capable enough to help out in the other office and make sure that eve...
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Blogpost Week 2

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          Every time I walk to the waiting room to call out a patient's name, I always make sure to check their date of birth before doing an optical coherence tomography(OCT) scan or a work up in the exam room. However, since I am pretty new at the job, I haven't exactly nailed down the routine quite yet. Just a few days ago, after prepping a chart and hurrying towards the waiting room to bring a patient back, I forgot to ask for his date of birth before heading straight to get an OCT. Only after I had gotten several images did I remember to ask him to confirm his date of birth. The numbers clearly didn't match up, and I realized with a sinking feeling in my stomach that I had grabbed the wrong person! Unfortunately, I had to tell the patient to head back to the waiting room even after I had already done most of the OCT. And honestly, it was a pretty awkward and funny experience, since the other patient who I was supposed to grab was waiting patiently...
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Blogpost Week 1

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 For my senior project, I am working as an ophthalmic technician at Eyehealth Northwest. I chose this project because I am interested in pursuing a pre-health track in college so I wanted to get a taste of what it's like to work in the medical field. I also wanted to gain further knowledge on certain ocular diseases and the preventative care that is provided for treatment. I was inspired by my sister who had a similar job a few years back and was able to learn so much about medical treatments that are used in the field of ophthalmology. For me, I have been interested in becoming a doctor for a while, and I knew that training at Eyehealth Northwest would be a way to experience this even as a graduating senior-- and ultimately, figuring out whether I will continue work in the medical field.  I am working with other ophthalmic technicians and the on retinal specialist in the retina department, which is different from general ophthalmology. Last summer, I actually started training...
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