Preservation and Restoration of Vision:

Vision for the Future, Part 2: Ophthalmic Education and Training: Proposed Curriculum on Training of Mid-Level Eye Care Personnel

On this page:

• Proposed Curriculum on Training of Mid-Level Eye Care Personnel
  
  
• Objectives
  
  
• Use of the modules
  
  
• Module I: Overview on Blindness
  
  
• Module II: Basic Clinical Functions
  
  
• Module III: Basic Eye Health Management Functions
  
  
• Module IV: Basic Training Function
  
  
• Module V: Basic Technical Functions

World Health Organization
Southeast and Western Pacific Regions

Excerpted from the Detailed Training Curriculum and Procedures for Evaluation of Training, Knowledge and Skill.

Most Member States in the WHO Regions of the Southeast and the Western Pacific have been expecting a new category of eye care personnel for many reasons, especially related to the developing and strengthening of blindness prevention.

A new category implies developing a new professional providing eye care services, whose role is called ophthalmologist assistant or substitute.

The former category may be working in the tertiary and secondary facilities, while the latter at the primary level, where an ophthalmologist is absent.

This is a concept of Mid-level Eye Care Personnel (MLEP) for blindness prevention and eye care services. Their activities might help to increase coverage of care at every level of eye care services while quality could be sustained at the desirable level. Thus, the issue is repeatedly brought to the meetings of blindness prevention for its early implementation.

The WHO Workshop on Evaluation of Prevention of Blindness programs held in Sydney (1992) concluded that the issue is a regional priority.

The next WHO joint inter-country workshop in Utsunomiya, Japan (1993) and two task forces meetings of the Member States in Manila (1995) and Kuala Lumpur (1996) succeeded in producing the regional model of standard curriculum.

In pursuance of the recommendations of the above mentioned workshops and meetings, the present working group had as its prime objective the development and completion of the structure and content for the training core curriculum for MLEP that will be applied in the countries in the region.

Objectives

THE OBJECTIVES OF THIS WORKING GROUP ARE:

1. To review the strategies and current situation in the training of the MLEP, which will ensure effective delivery of eye care especially in developing countries.
   
   
2. To develop the core curriculum for training of MLEP in order to carry out the implementation of the regional and national program on prevention blindness.
   
   

The objective of the training course for MLEP is to give the trainees task-oriented, multidisciplinary and community-oriented training which will provide them with appropriate knowledge, attitudes and skills to work effectively as an eye care team member at every level of the eye care delivery system.

The curriculum is very useful and significant for human resource development in order to strengthen blindness prevention programs in each country in the region.

Use of the modules

The guidelines for this core curriculum consist of five modules covering all necessary basic functions expected of mid-level eye care workers. The guidelines set out the learning objectives of each module, and the subtopics related to each objective.

The group felt that the contents in relation to each would be generally country specific and need to be developed at the national level, as appropriate.

The recognition and adaptation of these modules for MLEP training should be officially distributed nationwide. The introduction of these modules to the national trainers should be implemented as early as possible for them to train other MLEP in each country of the region.

Module I: Overview on Blindness

GENERAL GOALS

Students should understand:

1. Blindness and visual impairment with its implications.
   
   
2. Structure of the National Program for Prevention of Blindness (PBL) based on primary health centre (PHC) strategies.
   
   
3. The concept of avoidable and unavoidable blindness.
   
   
4. Necessary actions for blindness elimination and control (PEC, PHC, PBL approaches).
   
   

Module II: Basic Clinical Functions

GENERAL GOALS

Students should gain the knowledge, attitude and skills in the various roles of providing and assisting in eye care in different settings.

Module III: Basic Eye Health Management Functions

GENERAL GOALS

Students should be able to acquire the knowledge and skills of the epidemiological approaches and their application to assist prevention of blindness program manager.

Module IV: Basic Training Function

GENERAL GOALS

At the end of module, the students should be able to:

1. Assist the ophthalmologist in primary eye care training at second and first level of referral and first level of contact.
   
   
2. Teach primary eye care in the community.
   

Module V: Basic Technical Functions

GENERAL GOALS

The students should be able to develop the KSA in:

1. The proper use of selected equipment in eye care provision.
   
   
2. The care and maintenance of minor optical equipments and ophthalmic instruments.
   
   
3. Aseptic techniques.

June 30, 2000

Next: Ophthalmology Continuing Education

Also see: Table of Contents for Vision for the Future