Rachel Yoken's Senior Project: Saving Eyes

     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...

       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...