Postgraduate Diploma in Eye Care
Background
The prevalence of blindness and visual impairment throughout PNG is high. These conditions not only affect people’s quality of life, but have substantial economic implications for the community and government, through loss of productivity, and eye and health care costs.
An estimated 58,000 people over 50 in PNG are blind, with an additional 10,000 cases each year. Cataracts account for 70% of blindness, followed by refractive error, corneal diseases and trauma - all commonly treatable conditions. A further 550,000 are estimated to have low vision. The good news is that approximately three quarters of blindness and visual impairment is treatable. Eye care interventions are amongst the most straightforward and cost effective health care interventions, as long as eye health professionals have had appropriate training to provide the interventions. The bad news is that PNG is presently extremely under-resourced in eye health professionals. This one year Postgraduate Diploma in Eye Care (PGDEC) aims to address this gap by training up eye care professionals.
Program structure
The PGDEC is suitable for a motivated nurse, health extension officer or community health worker (with a minimum of one year’s work experience) who wishes to provide specialised eye care services, and who has the support of their employer.
The PGDEC is a one-year, full time programme. Its curriculum is based on World Health Organisation recommendations and is designed to ensure graduates have appropriate clinical skills and knowledge to provide high quality eye care services in PNG. It is based on the type of work PNG’s eye care personnel are required to perform, with the equipment they have available, and in the circumstances and health systems in which they are required to perform it.
The competencies to be developed by the students during this course can be grouped in two strands: Clinical and Promotive.
Units within the Clinical strand focus on eye care for individual patients presenting to the eye care provider with eye problems.
YEAR 1 (semester 1)
Essential Eye Care |
|
Refraction |
|
Operating theatre |
|
HE460 |
Professional competencies I |
HE460a |
First Aid Certificate |
HE460b |
Word Processing Skills |
YEAR 1 (semester 2)
| HE454 | Community Eye Care |
| HE455 | Eye Health Promotion |
| HE456 | Management for Quality Eye Care |
| HE460 | Professional competencies II |
| HE460c | Spreadsheet Skills |
| HE460d | Internet as a means of finding information |
| HE460e | Presentation software skills |
| HE461 | Clinical Rotation |
Diagnose and manage common eye conditions – Essential Eye Care (HE451)
- Applied ocular anatomy and physiology, ophthalmic history taking, examination and performing diagnostic tests are covered during the Essential Eye Care module.
Provide refraction services – Refraction (HE452)
- Presbyopic, spherical and astigmatic correction determination and appropriate prescribing and dispensing of spectacles are covered in the Refraction module
Provide ophthalmic operating theatre assistance – Operating Theatre (HE453)
- Handling, care and maintenance of surgical instruments and equipment, infection control, operating theatre protocol are covered in the Operating Theatre module
The Promotive strand comprises units that are concerned with providing eye care beyond the individual patient, especially promotive and preventive eye care.
Provide community eye care – Community Eye Care (HE454)
- School and community screening, blindness prevention programs based on population and primary health concepts and Vision 2020
Plan, initiate and evaluate health promotion activities – Eye Health Promotion (HE455)
- Information, education, communication for prevention and eye care promotion
Plan and manage an eye care clinic and outreach programs - Management for Quality Eye Care (HE456)
- Monitoring and evaluation, inventory, finances and human resources
In addition to patient-centred clinical care and promotive courses, a large portion of the course is practical (Clinical Rotation - HE461), with students examining patients under supervision or applying knowledge by conducting practical assignments at the Modilon General Hospital Eye Unit.
The PGDEC also requires the achievement of complimentary professional competencies in Information Technology - Word Processing, Spreadsheet skills, Presentation software skills (HE460).
The satisfactory completion of the eight (8) units as well as supervised clinical practice is required for graduation.
Entry requirements
- A nursing or health extension qualification permitting registration in the Pacific
AND - Minimum of 1 year work experience in a health related field
- Observation in an eye clinic for at least one month to demonstrate interest and motivation to pursue a career in ophthalmology
Special Entry may be considered, on a case-by-case basis, for those who do not satisfy the above requirements for admission to the Postgraduate Diploma program.
Graduates must be committed to at least two years of eye care service delivery following graduation, and be prepared to undergo activity and outcome surveillance during that time. They are also encouraged to participate in continuing education, to maintain and improve their skills and knowledge.
An important condition of acceptance is that the employer of the applicant must provide an assurance in writing that the graduate will be facilitated to provide eye care in Papua New Guinea, preferably in the public sector, for a period equivalent to the length of training undertaken.
The course was designed by The Fred Hollows Foundation NZ, which coordinates a large, multi-year eye health program with its partners in PNG, focusing on training eye care workers and equipping eye clinics to prevent and treat blindness. FHFNZ and its local partner FHF-PNG manage the eye clinic at Modilon General Hospital where the clinical components of the course take place. Some candidates may be considered for a scholarhsip from FHFNZ, which covers tuition and certain other DWU related expenses.
More information
For more information, please email
Benoit Tousignant, OD MPH
Head of Postgraduate Diploma in Eye Care
btousignant@dwu.ac.pg
To apply : Application Form 2010
