A Nationwide Initiative Empowering 868 Medical Students Across The Uk On Tackling Ophthalmic Emergencies

75% of students consider ophthalmology teaching at their medical school inadequate. With 10% of patients entering a hospital heading to the eye clinic and 6% of all A&E attendances being eye issues, this lack of ophthalmology education is unsustainable. We present an initiative run over two years to educate medical students on the recognition and management of eye conditions.

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The one-day course was created by an ophthalmology registrar and foundation doctor and advertised to all 45 medical schools across the UK. The course ran in 2021 and 2022, attracting a total of 868 delegates altogether.

Students’ confidence levels improved across all four aspects of the ophthalmology consultation: history, examination, recognising and managing eye cases (p<0.05, Wilcoxon test).  There was also a statistically significant improvement on confidence when dealing with all 14 eye conditions covered, especially in nuanced topics like removing corneal foreign bodies and microbial keratitis. Feedback included

- "better than any ophthalmology teaching I’ve had to date"

- "course should be mandatory for all medical students and foundation doctors"

Non-ophthalmologists often lack confidence with eye cases leading to personal struggles, reduced job satisfaction; delayed treatment; potential vision loss; unnecessary referrals; increased litigation; higher healthcare costs; especially in an aging population. Providing basic ophthalmic knowledge can help prevent sight-threatening consequences and improve job satisfaction. The course was a simple, repeatable, cost-effective method of increasing knowledge and confidence; feedback called for wider teaching for optometrists, orthoptists as well as expanding to a global scale.